A new study has found that mothers with three kids are the most stressed as compared to the moms raising any other number of children.
The survey conducted by TODAYMoms.com in April 2018 questioned 7000 US mothers about how much stress they felt while raising their children.
The stress levels revealed by the mothers were then compared with their number of kids.
Contrary to everyone’s expectations, the stress levels were not found to be increasing proportionally with the number of children a mother had.
In fact, moms who had four kids reported having the lowest stress levels among all the participant moms.
Mother-of-three Jill Smokler, a blogger, told Today that the results are accurate, saying: “Going from one to two was an easy, breezy transition. Two to three, everything was turned upside down. I do not feel like I have it together.
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“You only have two hands! Just crossing the street and not being able to physically hold all their hands I find tremendously stressful.”
Dr Janet Taylorm, mother-of-four and a New York psychiatrist, said that stress levels tend to decrease after the fourth child since moms eventually learn to stop controlling every little thing.
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She said when you’ve had more than three kids, there is just “not enough space in your head” for worrying about parental perfectionism.
“The more children you have, the more confident you become in your parenting abilities,” Dr Taylor added. “You have to let go. And then you’re just thankful when they all get to school on time.”
The study further found that 60 per cent mothers consider raising girls to be more stressful as compared to raising boys.
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When asked what was the biggest factor causing stress to them, nearly 60 per cent moms replied that the feeling of having limited time to do everything their children required of them caused the most stress.
The study also found that around 72 per cent mothers also stress about how stressed they are.