Keeping Good Company
A landmark study released this summer found a person could gain or lose weight depending on whether their family and friends packed on the pounds or dropped a dress size.
The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, followed 12,000 people since 1971 and collected enough data to know their family, friends, neighbors and co-workers. It didn't matter if those people lived across the street or across the country - they influenced their waistline.
Jean Chatzky, a columnist with Money magazine, took this logic one step further in the October issue to suggest a person's financial health is similarly swayed by the company you keep.
Karen Miller-Kovach, the chief scientist at Weight Watchers, told Chatzky that the link makes sense. "Social networks determine social norms and social behavior," she said. "What's acceptable, what's not acceptable. I expect we'll see a lot of parallels in other fields."
Chatzky wrote that research shows if you hang around spendthrifts or those who spend like drunken sailors, you're likely to pick up those respective habits.
"It's really a question of how other people's values affect your values," Duke University sociologist Lisa Keister told the author.
Perhaps this is why it's so critical for new mothers to be smart about the company we keep.
When I brought Hendrick home, my interest in other people's parenting skills intensified. I knew I needed guidance - fast!
I was fortunate to make two good friends in town who are excellent mothers. One is a pharmacist who stays at home with her three kids and the other is a dental hygienist who volunteers as an EMT. They are both smart, caring Christian women who gently guided me through my first two years of motherhood.
I stay away from permissive parents who worry more about dressing their kids in designer clothes and throwing outlandish birthday parties than instilling a sense of modesty and discipline in their offspring.
If the contagious weight-gain theory is accurate, then we must be able to conclude our friend's parenting skills - good or bad - will rub off on us.
The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, followed 12,000 people since 1971 and collected enough data to know their family, friends, neighbors and co-workers. It didn't matter if those people lived across the street or across the country - they influenced their waistline.
Jean Chatzky, a columnist with Money magazine, took this logic one step further in the October issue to suggest a person's financial health is similarly swayed by the company you keep.
Karen Miller-Kovach, the chief scientist at Weight Watchers, told Chatzky that the link makes sense. "Social networks determine social norms and social behavior," she said. "What's acceptable, what's not acceptable. I expect we'll see a lot of parallels in other fields."
Chatzky wrote that research shows if you hang around spendthrifts or those who spend like drunken sailors, you're likely to pick up those respective habits.
"It's really a question of how other people's values affect your values," Duke University sociologist Lisa Keister told the author.
Perhaps this is why it's so critical for new mothers to be smart about the company we keep.
When I brought Hendrick home, my interest in other people's parenting skills intensified. I knew I needed guidance - fast!
I was fortunate to make two good friends in town who are excellent mothers. One is a pharmacist who stays at home with her three kids and the other is a dental hygienist who volunteers as an EMT. They are both smart, caring Christian women who gently guided me through my first two years of motherhood.
I stay away from permissive parents who worry more about dressing their kids in designer clothes and throwing outlandish birthday parties than instilling a sense of modesty and discipline in their offspring.
If the contagious weight-gain theory is accurate, then we must be able to conclude our friend's parenting skills - good or bad - will rub off on us.
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