Study: Having Kids Makes You Delusional?

[Andres]

Why would anyone intentionally inflict that on themselves? I think most aren't aware of it.

I think the study is right that indeed, parents get angry or even depressed more often than non parents. Should that come as a surprise? More people under one roof in its' own will lead to more tension. And kids are kids, they need to learn everything. I'm the impatient type and every single day, I'm having a very hard time not to lose my patience and I hardly succeed in it. Of course that leads to tensions. Of course, the extra bills lead to worry. Of course, you're child will get sick a lot (remember your own childhood), there will be lots of unexpected stuff, teaching him the meaning of the word "no" will take longer than 3 lifetimes and whatnot.

The study is entirely correct on that aspect.

What they've got wrong is the idea that this can be measured and put into statistics, numbers, charts etc.

But a new paper shows that parents fool themselves into believing that having kids is more rewarding than it actually is. It turns out parents are in the grip of a giant illusion.

(...) The studies tested the hypothesis that “idealizing the emotional rewards of parenting helps parents to rationalize the financial costs of raising children.”

=

A lot of people will disagree with our results, but they are wrong! They are unhappy but don't want to admit it!

I'm not going to "rationalize" the choice of getting children, because ratio had nothing to do with it.

Seeing my son smile to me or seeing how he's doing something new and how he enjoys it, seeing how he discovers, it's well worth it, really. In between all the chores, there are these moments of pure joy that will be treasured for as long as I'm here.

And if those psychologists of yours' want to call me delusional because of it, then so be it. I always knew I'm a bit crazy, now at least it's official.