Study: Strict parents = fat kids

Taking a tough line with your children might actually be bulging their waistlines, a new study concludes. Why? Kids over-eat to cope with the stress of authoritarian parents, according to the study by the Boston University School of Medicine. "Strict mothers were nearly five times more likely to raise tubby first-graders than mothers who treated their children with flexibility and respect while also setting clear rules,"

Another conclusion: "Although the children of flexible, rule-setting moms mostly avoided obesity, the children of neglectful mothers and permissive mothers were twice as likely to get fat," AP said. Here's how Reuters and CBS News weighed in.