You only need to get it right with your baby 50% of the time, according to science

You only need to get it right with your baby 50% of the time, according to scienceYou only need to get it right with your baby 50% of the time, according to scienceRelax, worried parents. You dont have to do everything perfectly with your baby. In fact, if you get things right about half of the time, according to research, your child will turn out fine.The study, led by Lehigh University researcher Susan S. Woodhouse, an expert on infant attachment, concerned caregivers response to babies when they cried. You only needed to get it right 50% of the time when responding to the babies need for attachment to have a positive impact on the baby, researchers found. The findings were published in the journal Child Development and co-authored with researchers from Pennsylvania State University and the University of Maryland.Follow Ladders on FlipboardFollow Ladders magazines on Flipboard covering Happiness, Productivity, Job Satisfaction, Neuroscience, and more50/50Securely-attached babies m eaning babies who feel safe are likely to do better as children or adults. Secure attachment is also linked to better mental health in both childhood and adulthood, as well as an increased readiness for starting school.The results were especially promising for low-income families, who researchers studied exclusively 83 mothers and infants in all.The study focused on the mothers responses to their crying baby when it cried to measure feelings of security. It also focused on the mothers status as a secure cousine when the baby was playing or exploring. Babies felt that their mother was a secure base if the responded and soothed their cries at least 50% of their time specifically, with close, snuggly contact until they were completely calm.Examples of getting it wrong in ways that lead to insecurity were scaring the baby, not handling the baby gently, yelling, or failing to protect the infant from another threatening child. Overparenting had the same effect. But the most important t hing you can do, the research found, is comfort your child as often as you can, even if you dont pick up the infant immediately.The findings provide evidence for the validity of a new way of conceptualizing the maternal caregiving quality that actually works for low-income families, Woodhouse said, in a release.Because low socioeconomic-status parents juggle multiple challenges associated with low socioeconomic status, it may be helpful for them to know that holding a crying infant until fully soothed, even 50% of the time, promotes security, the researchers said. Such a message could help parents increase positive caregiving without raising anxiety regarding perfect parenting or setting the bar so high as to make change unattainable in families that face multiple stressors.Ways of maintaining a calm connectedness and being a secure base for a baby throughout the day could include carrying the baby on the hip while the caregiver does tasks, researchers suggested, an act that could also encourage secure attachment.Tough cookieThese findings arent meant to rebel against attachment theory, Woodhouse said, but provide an attachment framework that is more accessible across race, culture, and socioeconomic class.What really matters is in the end, does the parent get the job done both when a baby needs to connect, and when a baby needs to explore Woodhouse said.Ultimately, she said, the research showed that babies were quite resilient.It really is a different way of looking at the quality of parenting The other part is that you dont have to do it 100 percent you have to get it right about half of the time, and babies are very forgiving and its never too late. Keep trying. You dont have to be perfect, you just have to be good enough.You might also enjoyNew neuroscience reveals 4 rituals that will make you happyStrangers know your social class in the first seven words you say, study finds10 lessons from Benjamin Franklins daily schedule that will double your product ivityThe worst mistakes you can make in an interview, according to 12 CEOs10 habits of mentally strong people