Ugly parents do ugly parenting - TranceAddict Forums

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-- Ugly parents do ugly parenting

Posted by Yohan on Apr-03-2006 04:55:

Ugly parents do ugly parenting

http://www.canada.com/reginaleaderp...29-cf1b21626e1c

quote:

Jodie Sinnema, CanWest News Service
Published: Saturday, April 01, 2006

EDMONTON -- The next time you see a kid wandering lost and alone in the grocery store, sneak a peak at the parents.

There's a good chance they're ugly, suggests new research from the University of Alberta.

"Unattractive parents are less likely to supervise their children closely than attractive parents," said Andrew Harrell, the same researcher who started a media storm last year when he presented evidence that showed that parents neglect unattractive children more than attractive ones.

He argued that evolution was at play: since pretty children have the best genes, parents will pay them the most attention to ensure their strong genetic material carries on.

His latest research also suggested that attractive parents who don't wear wedding rings are the most inattentive of all -- likely because they are distracted by thoughts of dating.

Harrell's team observed parents and children in grocery stores. He admitted his limited data can't prove his theories, since his team never interviewed the parents or the children.

"The unattractive parents may be ugly because they have had economic difficulties, health problems, diabetes, poor eyesight, psychological and physical hardships that distract them," Harrell offered as an explanation.

Harrell, the director of the population research lab in the University of Alberta's sociology department, began studying parents in grocery stores to figure out if their behaviour contributed to accidents involving shopping carts where children were hurt.

Harrell's team went to 14 grocery stores in Edmonton to observe 861 single parents with one child between the age of one and seven in tow. While ideas on beauty are subjective, scores on the parents' looks were very similar among observers who were part of his study, Harrell said.

They found 16 per cent of homely parents lost sight of their children at least once compared to 10 per cent of the attractive parents. If the homely parents had ugly children, the neglect was even worse, with 36 per cent of parents letting their children out of sight.

Parents were considered neglectful if the child wandered more than three metres away -- too far to intervene on time if a child got into trouble -- or went out of sight around an aisle or far across the store.

A biological sciences professor at Stanford University in California called Harrell's study nonsense.

"There's no possible way he could draw that conclusion from watching people in grocery stores," Paul Ehrlich said. "These kinds of claims are made all the time."

-- With files from Trish Audette Edmonton Journal
� The Leader-Post (Regina) 2006

I must say, this is amusing bullshit.

Posted by Misanthrope on Apr-03-2006 04:56:

I totally agree with you.

Posted by VERTiG0 on Apr-03-2006 05:13:

I do see some truth in that.

Posted by Misanthrope on Apr-03-2006 05:16:

quote:
Originally posted by VERTiG0
I do see some truth in that.

personal experience?

Posted by Yohan on Apr-03-2006 05:17:

quote:
Originally posted by Misanthrope
personal experience?

Haha. I was just about to post that.

Posted by Misanthrope on Apr-03-2006 05:21:

quote:
Originally posted by EvilTree
Haha. I was just about to post that.

<3

it's his fault.

he set himself up for that.

Posted by Yohan on Apr-03-2006 05:34:

quote:
Originally posted by Misanthrope
<3

it's his fault.

he set himself up for that.

Yes. It is quite true.

Silly Cale. Making silly comments all the time.

Posted by VERTiG0 on Apr-03-2006 05:35:

I hate* you guys

*platonic love

Posted by Misanthrope on Apr-03-2006 05:41:

yes! CYBER LOVE

but now i'm definitely going to check out ugly kids and their parents.

I really don't think it could be based on appearances.

I wonder if it varied depending on racial differences.

Posted by Yohan on Apr-03-2006 05:41:

quote:
Originally posted by VERTiG0
I hate* you guys

*platonic love

We're not the ones making dumbass comments.

Hah.

Posted by evil_cookie on Apr-03-2006 06:05:

ugly parents produce nice looking kids and vise versa.

ya rly...

Posted by chinamon on Apr-03-2006 14:32:

who sets the standard for "ugly"?
beauty is in the eye of the beer holder
err beholder

Posted by DigitalMP on Apr-03-2006 14:44:

and the good kids will see you at TIL!

Posted by riskytrader on Apr-03-2006 15:50:

I for one don't always wear my wedding rings when I am with my son. It's not because I am looking for someone else but more for his personal safety as I am afraid sometimes I may catch my ring on his face/hands while he is struggling in his car seat as most toddlers do at his age.

I personally would have a heart attack if my son was more than 3 metres away from me. He always holds my hand or is within arms length of me because you just never know what can happen. I do however see a lot of bad parenting which drives me crazy but what can someone really do?!