I am the father of a 4 years old girl (and a 2 months old baby girl) and I can relate to the study's results. In the family, I'm the one that pushes my daughter limits, sometime with a certain amount of risk.
One drawback of this playful approach to parenting, is that my daughter perceives the mother as the authority and the father as the "friend". I reckon this is a quite common scenario, but it leads to some unpleasant situations (such as, mum says no to ipad, kid runs to father and ask ipad to father - hence creating a conflict ).
Actually, I'm trying to be less playful with her to check if I can restore the authority balance.
One drawback of this playful approach to parenting, is that my daughter perceives the mother as the authority and the father as the "friend". I reckon this is a quite common scenario, but it leads to some unpleasant situations (such as, mum says no to ipad, kid runs to father and ask ipad to father - hence creating a conflict ).
Actually, I'm trying to be less playful with her to check if I can restore the authority balance.