Messed up? Blame it on your mother

Blaming someone else for the mistakes you make or the mishaps that happen to you is as natural as mother’s milk. The elder generation tries to impress on the youthful blame-shifter that this is a character flaw, that you should man up or woman up, own up and take charge. Now, science has come down on the side of blithe evader of responsibility.

You can blame your mother. Research reports that children of mothers who have had broken marriages and multiple partners find it tough to have relationships. Nature and nurture reinforce in their malleable young minds the traits that lead to broken marriages.

Can’t stay loyal to your partner? Raise a toast and blame your mom. Can’t tolerate the slightest deviation by your partner from the straight and narrow you have laid down? Cheers! It’s just your maternal gene acting up.


Conscientious objectors might find some problem with the study. Everyone inherits genes from both the mother and the father, and learn behaviour from the father, too.

Why should filial misconduct be attributed only to the mother? Women have a ready answer. The reluctance to take responsibility — where do you think does that come from? If this is right, the blame might be with the offspring who refuses to accept it.

Who wants to stay with a shifty man, in any case? So, the study would be right, too. And wrong.