40licious Money: Working Moms Have Fatter Kids

How fat do you think Rosie's kids were?

There's this new study in the journal Child Development that shows a correlation between how long a mother works and her children's body mass index (BMI). Apparently the more a mother works, the fatter her children will be. They're not really sure why this is. The study spanned many socio-economic and ethnic groups.

There are a couple theories: That working moms may not have enough time to prepare nutritious meals (they also allowed for dads who helped, but no change in results) and that people who are taking care of kids let them watch more TV, rather than invest time and energy getting them off their tuchuses.

I'm not a scientist. I didn't measure 990 kids and weigh them, and interview their moms. But something about this stinks. I can't tell if this is some weird patriarchal subterfuge to add another layer of guilt to working moms, or real science. But it's making me pissy.

I don't know. I don't have a kid yet.

Gloria Steinem, if you're reading, what do you think about this? 

And everyone - do you have kids? Do you work? Are you kids fat? Tell us about it and maybe we'll find out what's really going on here.