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Our kids are all angels, study finds. Really?

By JoNel Aleccia, MSNBC.comThere’s no shortage of bratty children in America, as anyone who stood in line to see Santa over the weekend can attest. But you wouldn’t know that from a new study of American families, which finds that 96 percent of the nation’s parents think their kids are pretty well-behaved, actually. In fact, just 4 percent of parents admit their children are generally not
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By JoNel Aleccia, MSNBC.com

There’s no shortage of bratty children in America, as anyone who stood in line to see Santa over the weekend can attest. But you wouldn’t know that from a new study of American families, which finds that 96 percent of the nation’s parents think their kids are pretty well-behaved, actually. 

In fact, just 4 percent of parents admit their children are generally not well-behaved or obedient, according to a new government report on family health.

Health officials interviewed the parents of nearly 84,000 children between 2001 and 2007 about everything from step-parents to hay fever.

Overall, the report confirmed what we all know: America’s families are getting more diverse and kids with more stable home lives are healthier, happier and miss less school.

But tucked inside the survey was an interesting question posed to families of kids ages 4 to 17: Did parents think it was true that their children were generally well-behaved during the past six months? And did the children do as they were told?

The result was an overwhelming: Yes!

Overall, only 4.2 percent of parents of boys said their sons were not well-behaved. For girls, 3 percent of parents felt that way.

That view changed slightly according to who was doing the talking. In two-parent homes, only 2.1 percent said their kids weren’t well-behaved. In single-parent families, that number rose to 5 percent.

Six percent of poor families said kids weren’t exactly saintly; but only 3 percent of parents with money would cop to the same.

What’s going on here? Officials at the National Center for Health Statistics said they don’t think that parents are lying, that face-to-face interviews usually lead to pretty accurate answers.

When prodded, study author Debra Blackwell reviewed a single year, 2007, and said that about 20 percent of parents actually said their kids were “somewhat” well-behaved, a category not included in the published study. 

Still, that leaves more than three-quarters of parents who said their kids “certainly” were little angels.

Blackwell kindly suggests that perhaps parents simply don’t remember the details of kids’ bad behavior over six months.

Can these findings be true? Are the vast majority of American parents certain their kids are well-behaved?

Another recent study found that parents don’t believe their obese offspring are fat. Now are we in denial about kids’ actions as well?