Ask a non-parent to change a diaper, and there’s a good chance they’ll gag. But seasoned parents are tempered in that stuff . . .
A new study found once you’ve been a parent for a while, gross stuff doesn’t seem so gross anymore.
Researchers in England had volunteers look at disgusting pictures of things like vomit and feces. They mixed in normal photos too. The goal was to track how fast people clicked away from the gross ones.
99 of the volunteers were parents, and 50 of them didn’t have kids. And it turned out the non-parents were WAY more likely to click away in disgust.
The ones who DID have kids almost seemed unfazed by it, like the gross stuff was par for the course. They barely avoided the photos at all.
It makes sense that years of poopy diapers and runny noses would desensitize you, so it’s not surprising. But if you feel like having kids has made you immune to grossness, now there’s some actual science to back it up.
They even figured out exactly when it starts. New parents start getting desensitized around the six-month mark, right after their kid starts eating solid food.
(Study Finds / Scandinavian Journal of Psychology)
