Do children make you less happy?

June 30, 2008 shareanak

I read an article this morning which stated that a study done showed when people have children their happiness levels go down. When people say “the bundle of joy has arrived” they are actually wrong. There is no bundle of joy just a bundle of frustrations and, i am guessing, unhappiness. It showed that the “marital satisfaction decreases and only increases when the oldest child has left home.” A national study of families and households showed that no one who had children reported significantly greater well being than people with children. In the past, supposedly, people had children for specific reasons, such as working the farm and contributing to the family and today children are being born from emotion rather than necessity and the increasingly complicated work and social schedules are making happiness with children more difficult. It is to bad that the people who gave their child the job of fixing their relationship before it is even born didn’t read this article.

I am not saying I agree or disagree with this article. I have no children of my own so I have no experience with this topic, I just thought it was interesting to think about. I definitely do not think Tom should read this article!

Here is the website to the article http://www.newsweek.com/id/143792?GT1=43002