Hitting Kids Leads To Sleep Problems

I’m hoping it won’t surprise you to learn that a three-year study of 4,600 toddlers has concluded that children whose parents hit or yell at them are more likely to have trouble sleeping. It doesn’t take an expert to realize that a quick slap and a screamed threat are not exactly relaxing.

What is surprising is that the Australian paediatrician who led the study is arguing that there is no way to know whether aggressive parenting causes sleeping problems, or if toddlers who are cranky and overtired cause their parents to be more hostile.”It’s always a cause-and-effect argument and you can’t really conclude from this which occurs first,” said Dr. Harriet Hiscock.

Call me naïve, but I kinda thought it was common knowledge that, “He made me do it!” is not a justifiable excuse for violence—particularly when the “he” is a toddler. Furthermore, the study—which examined sleeping habits when children were one-year-old, and then again two years later—found that “mothers’ parenting style was not a big factor in sleep problems at the age of one, but became an issue by the second study.”

Hmmm, I wonder if the inability to fall asleep that these kids developed over time had anything to do with living with the constant stress of parents who frequently lose their tempers….

Photo: Hank van Stuivenberg/Sydney Morning Herald