A Study Found Being a Parent Desensitizes You to Gross Stuff

Ask someone without kids to change a diaper and you’ll likely witness a full physical reaction. Gagging. Panic. A sudden need for fresh air. Meanwhile, parents are over here eating a granola bar one-handed like nothing is happening.

According to a new study, that’s not bravery. That’s conditioning.

Researchers in England wanted to see how people react to gross things once parenting enters the chat. Volunteers were shown a mix of neutral images and truly upsetting ones, including vomit and feces. The goal was to track how quickly participants clicked away from the gross photos.

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Out of the group, 99 were parents, and 50 were non-parents. And the difference was dramatic.

The non-parents clicked away fast. Like, absolutely not, delete this from my memory fast.
The parents? Barely flinched. Just calmly taking it in like, “Yes. I’ve seen worse. Yesterday.”

Researchers noted that parents seemed almost unfazed, as if grossness had simply become part of daily life. Which tracks, considering years of diapers, spit-up, runny noses, mystery stains, and that one smell you can never quite identify.

The most validating part? Scientists even pinpointed when this transformation happens.

Parents begin losing their sensitivity to gross stuff around the six-month mark, right when babies start eating solid food. That’s when things officially shift from “cute milk mess” to “how did that come out of a human?”

So if you feel like parenthood has turned you into a person who can clean bodily fluids without blinking, congratulations. You’re not broken. You’re evolved.

Science says so.