Parents often refer to their children as their pride and joy. But research tells a different story: Having kids doesnt necessarily make people happier.
Most parents feel that their children are incredibly important sources of life satisfaction, says Jennifer Glass, professor of sociology at the University of Texas at Austin and a demographer who studies the relationship between parenthood and well-being.
But thats not the same thing as happiness, and its not the same thing as financial well-being, good physical health or good emotional health,Glass tells CNBC Make It.
So, why does having kids not provide the happiness that we think it will?
Research shows that there is a happiness bump that parents experience right after a baby is born. But that tends to dissipate over the course of a year, Glass says.
After that point in time, the levels of happiness of parents and non-parents gradually diverge, with non-parents generally growing happier over time.
Its not that parents are lukewarm about bringing a baby into their lives, but child-rearing is tough.
You find that [parents] happiness plummets pretty quickly once they discover all of the work thats involved in a brand new baby, Amy Blackstone, professor of sociology at the University of Maine, and author of Childfree by Choice, tells CNBC Make It.
Life without children is simply much more stable, Glass says.
From figuring out remote learning to getting up in the middle of the night to tend to a sick kid, there are a lot of constant low-level stressors in parents lives, Glass says. Depression and anxiety tend to be higher among actively parenting adults.
