Psychologist Leon Kuczynski at the University of Guelph, who studies agency in children, points to a double standard: we expect children to be compliant, but wouldn"t expect that of an adult. "Most of parenting is about how to deal with children"s non-compliance, with the idea of suppressing it…  From infancy, children"s resistance is a sign of autonomy and that"s actually a feature of [all] human beings," he says.