29 Jul Happiness and children; some intriguing findings…
by Penny Marshall
As I turn the pages of our family photo albums, I see countless pictures of our children growing up. Most of the shots capture moments of happiness or achievement: my daughters are laughing on care-free holidays under azure summer skies, or clutching a medal, holding a certificate, winning a race.
These albums, stored in a memory chest I have created for my family, are a record not just of my children’s happiness and achievements, but my own as well.
I love to look at the pictures of us, it’s a sort of proof that I’m living the ‘parental dream’. Or that’s what I thought.
But now I’m being told that my parental happiness is a delusion and that my photo albums – like my parental memory bank – contain only the moments I have chosen to archive.
Mothers and fathers, according to the latest research by top scientists, simply choose to forget – or else don’t admit to – all the other hideous stuff which makes us miserable on an almost daily basis; the tears, the tedium and the tantrums.
In fact, this research goes even further than that. It suggests that there’s a good chance having children actually makes people unhappy – or at least a lot less happy than those who are childless.
It has long been instilled in us that the key to ultimate joy and fulfilment lies with having a family – in fact, it is even detailed in the Bible. Can it really be that this is no longer true?
Keep reading to find the interesting and possibly challenging answer, at least according to this article…HERE