So you don’t need to have had a heart attack to be a good cardiologist, but there are some things that you actually should experience yourself before putting the dampners on it for others – like whether having children makes parents happy or not…surely
Social scientist Dr Nattavudh Powdthavee said there was “almost zero association” between having children and happiness.
He said: “In a recent study of British adults, for example, we found that parents and non-parents reported the same levels of life satisfaction.”
Dr Powdthavee, from the University of York, said most parents remember milestones like a first smile, and think these rewards more than compensate them for the challenging task of raising children.
But any small bursts of happiness are cancelled out by the day-to-day chores of having a family, he said in the latest issue of The Psychologist, the magazine of The British Psychological Society.
