Does Having More Kids Mean More Happiness?
Posted by Danielle Bean in News on Monday, November 09, 2009 12:00 PM
Hmmm, this feels like a “no duh” kind of scientific finding, but sadly, in today’s world, it is shocking news:
For married individuals of all ages and married women in particular, children increase life satisfaction and life satisfaction goes up with the number of children in the household. Negative experiences in raising children are reported by people who are separated, living as a couple, or single, having never been married.
The fact that you can’t argue with nature or numbers, though, doesn’t stop some people from trying. To suggest that women will find happiness in committed relationships and childbearing is not exactly politically correct.
Bonnie Rochman, a writer for Double X, where we find out “what women really think,” (Oh man, don’t get me started) takes issue with the study:
It’s hard to believe that it doesn’t get exponentially more difficult to maintain a social life with your spouse or carve out “me time” with each additional pregnancy. Recently, one of my closest friends sent me an e-mail kvetching about a typical week taking care of her three kids, which will sound familiar to any of us with multiple young ones underfoot:
Drive 12 carpools. Pack eight lunches (lucky her, I thought; at our house, we pack 13). Nurse the baby seven to eight times a day, seven days a week. Change a million diapers. Cook a healthy dinner five times a week, and mac and cheese once or twice (while holding a baby in one arm and putting on hair bows and Superman capes with the other) ... How could having more kids improve the situation?
Here’s a study I would like to see: The number of aging women who regret not having had enough “me time” versus the number of aging women who regret not having made more room in their lives for hair bows and superman capes.
This writer’s perspective doesn’t surprise me, but it does make me sad. It’s a clear indication of what happens when you take God out of the equation.
If this life is all there is, spending any part of it changing diapers will make you miserable.
If this life is all there is, “carving out me time” will be your first priority.
If this life is all there is, finding value in serving others is nonsensical.
I don’t need a scientific study or a feminist writer to tell me where to find fulfillment and meaning in my life.
So now a study tells us that marriage and family life make women happy ... almost makes you think God had a plan from the start doesn’t it?
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