Young Women Look to Their Own Mothers for Parenting Advice

By Rachel Stockton (rachels@foodconsumer.org)

Up until the middle of the 20th century, the baton of motherhood was typically passed down from older family members to the younger set. Women gathered often to participate in community projects, such as quilting and canning. This provided the younger women with an opportunity to listen and learn from their familial mentors.

While days of quilting and canning have gone the way of blue Monday wash days, a new study shows that young women are still more likely to imitate their mother's parenting style than fathers are. Ohio State University researched 1133 young parents; this set of parents was particularly chosen because their parents had taken part in a parenting survey in 1979.

When it comes to reading, spanking and praising, women clearly follow in their mother's footsteps. However, the researchers noticed some parenting practices were only handed down only partially. For example, parents in the 1990s were more likely to forego spanking than their own parents did. Jonathon Vespa, co-author of the study, says this kind of generational, or cultural change, also influences parenting style. Learning what to hold onto, versus what to let go of in the parenting realm is also part of the process

The kind of information that is most helpful to a young mother is sound advice on how to solve a myriad of baby issues, such as colic (hang on, and remember "this too shall pass") and getting a child to swallow foul tasting medicine (refrigerate the meds - they taste "better" when they're cold). Learning how to multi-task is a priori with small children in the house; who better to give advice in this regard than a mother who has "been there, done that?"