Ahh. Finally, peace and quite. Your baby is napping and you get to do the same.
Slowly you drift into sweet slumber and then you hear, “WAAH, WAAH!”
Yup, your angel is up again and she’s causing a ruckus. You open your eyes and zip to her like a bee on steroids. (Has anyone really seen a bee on steroids?)
Ever wonder why you have super fast reflexes the minute you hear your baby cry? Here’s what a study found.
The Study
Researchers from Oxford University worked with 40 volunteers to gauge their response time after playing the popular arcade game whack-a-mole.
Prior to whacking the moles, the volunteers were asked to listen to different sounds: crying of babies, twittering of birds and distressed adults.
The Findings
The study showed that faster response times were recorded after participants listened to the sound of crying babies.
Morten Kringelbach from Oxford’s psychiatry department says that this may be an evolutionary response so parents can protect their offspring.
So what?
Here’s a scenario from the stone age: You leave the baby in front of your cave to quickly grab a glistening apple from the tree. Half-way through the climb your offspring begins to cry.
Thanks to an improved response time, you zip to your child in time to ward-off the hungry coyote.
Without this instinctive response, more children would have been tasty treats for starving animals.
Nowadays there aren’t many wild animals stalking for prey in the city. However babies still cry for mostly the same reasons: hunger, boredom, unwell feeling or just because they want to.
Parents respond to these distress calls as a way to ensure the survival of the species.
Good to know, right?
So, anyone up for a game of whack-a-mole to test your new-found super mom reflexes?
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What great information! Where did you find that rock painting? That is so cool! We recently had a family get together, which is the 7 of us mostly all on baby #4. The noise level is so loud, that we could not hear one of the babies crying back in his crib. By the time his Mom got to him, he was so worked up and angry…poor little guy. You could probably say that there is not necessarily safety in numbers;)
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Your family gathering must have been really loud for crying to go unheard. And yeah, the art work is absolutely amazing! I saw it on flickr through this user: s.jaspert. That should take you straight to the photo. Hope you have a wonderful weekend!
lol I am amazed that I can wake up to my sons little whimper when he’s ready to eat at night. Once you become a mom you have this serious connection to your kids. It’s amazing. I used to sleep like a rock, serious through my alarm and through hail storms etc. I still sleep through ALL of that, but I never can sleep through my little ones in distress in some way. It’s rather interesting.
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It is pretty amazing, Sarah. I read a book before that said it’s as if parents have an invisible string that ties them to their babies.
I’m like Sarah, I used to be able to sleep like the dead… but if one of my kids even whimpered, I was awake in a flash. And now, even though my kids are no longer babies, the sound of a baby crying just sets my nerves on edge! I want to go fix it – NOW!
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I read somewhere that the sound of crying babies raises your blood pressure which explains why it can sometimes be unpleasant to hear. Maybe you should try earplugs? Haha.
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that explains my quickness..haha!
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I bet you are super fast since you’re mom of 8
I’m not yet a mom but having 3 nephews around sort of conditioned me to have a good response time (somehow). Or it’s probably the primal instinct kicking in. And I’m good with whack-a-mole too hahaha
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Good morning! Yeah, I think the increased response time is not limited to moms but for anyone who is around kids (that’s just an opinion). You can take your fast reflexes to the arcade and have a few rounds of what-a-mole with your nephews (and phew, 3 boys?? they can get pretty rowdy!)
Mother of 6 here and I can attest to this! I stay in high gear from all of the crying I’ve heard over the years (and continue to hear). But suddenly I have a desire to play whack-a-mole!
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6 kids? You must be a supermom! Oh and I bet you’d win every single game, Christy. Thanks for the funny comment.
As always Anne a great post.
Cries can be further understood too. Have you come across the work of Dunstan? An Australian baby expert who can teach you the difference between cries. Amazing. Beyond this if we can actually meet our babies needs before they reach the crying stage by understanding more of what they are telling us non-verbally this will minimise both theirs and your anxiety further.
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Hi Mama Viv! Yes, I think I’ve come accross her work. She identified 5 distinct sounds babies make that clue us in on what they want/need before they start crying, right?
Crying as a survival tool is very interesting. Read somewhere before that baby cries raise parents’ blood pressure which is why we are bothered when we hear it.
Impressed at how you managed to get us to know things we mostly don’t heed on. I too had a son and now he’s 4 and very healthy and cute. It was at the time when a mother tends to be very observant with sounds upon delivering the baby in the first place. It is an instinct for moms to know what really is our baby is crying for.