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Can you guess?
By Nicole Weaver — Written on Mar 20, 2020
Being a good mom often means playing the bad cop. That includes shutting down rebellion and occassional (but often very necessary) nagging. Although nagging has gotten a negative rep — and is often used as a derogatory term against women — science has found that successful daughters are often the product of just that: a nagging mother.
A study from the University of Essex researched 15,500 girls between the ages of 13 and 14 from 2004 to 2010. The girls who had "tough" mothers who set the bar high were found more likely to attend college and earn higher wages.
They also found that girls with tough moms were less likely to become teen mothers.
So yeah, the years of being labeled the "uncool" mom may be annoying but it does pay off.
According to researcher Ericka Rascon-Ramirez, "In many cases we succeeded in doing what we believed was more convenient for us, even when this was against our parents' will. But no matter how hard we tried to avoid our parents' recommendations, it is likely that they ended up influencing, in a more subtle manner, choices that we had considered extremely personal. What our parents expected about our school choices was, very likely, a major determinant of our decisions about conceiving a child or not during our teenage years."
As difficult as it may be, try to keep this bit of info in mind as you battle it out through the terrible teens and find peace in two things: 1) Your kids will be full of gratitude in the future. 2) There’s some serious karma to be dealt out once they have children of their own.
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Nicole Weaver is a love and entertainment writer.
Editor's Note: This article was originally posted on April 21, 2015 and was updated with the latest information.