Are Children an Utter Joy?
The answer is apparently, no.
I came across this Time Magazine article by Daniel Gilbert, which I will excerpt below.
We're all told there's nothing more joyous than having/raising children. When you set aside the phenomenon I experience here in North Texas with the inordinate number of "jesus freakish" women who believe that their children are not only a perpetual joy, but also never do a thing wrong with regard to interacting with others, there are still scores that want us to believe that children are a significant (if not perpetual) source of happiness and joy.
With that in mind, I give you this:
Studies reveal that most married couples start out happy and then become progressively less satisfied over the course of their lives, becoming especially disconsolate when their children are in diapers and in adolescence, and returning to their initial levels of happiness only after their children have had the decency to grow up and go away. When the popular press invented a malady called "empty-nest syndrome," it failed to mention that its primary symptom is a marked increase in smiling.
What? Are you serious? Why would I want this? I'm barely hangin' on now? Now you're going to give me a little bundle of depression that I can't get rid of EVER!?!Psychologists have measured how people feel as they go about their daily activities, and have found that people are less happy when they are interacting with their children than when they are eating, exercising, shopping or watching television. Indeed, an act of parenting makes most people about as happy as an act of housework. Economists have modeled the impact of many variables on people's overall happiness and have consistently found that children have only a small impact. A small negative impact.
As happy as housework. Wow... I guess the good news is that it's only a "small negative impact."Our children give us many things, but an increase in our average daily happiness is probably not among them. Rather than deny that fact, we should celebrate it. Our ability to love beyond all measure those who try our patience and weary our bones is at once our most noble and most human quality.
Screw that! At this point I can think of only a couple of compelling reasons to have kids now.- Someone to take over house chores. If one day I have a son, I look forward to the day when I can show him the lawn mower and edger and then go have a beer.
- Who else is going to take care of me when I'm old?
- Okay, I thought I could think of a third reason, but there really aren't any more, are there..... and to be honest with you, those reasons aren't that compelling anyway.
