ETW

Happy Mother’s Day to all of the SAHMs out there—-hardest job in the world, in my opinion!!

While I generally reject the notion that your happiness is what should be driving these decisions to begin with, even accepting that premise, I think the framing of this is a little off: Instead of looking at people your own age and how happy/fulfilled they are, I think it would be far more useful to look at people who have older kids or empty-nesters. The period of raising young kids will last, at most, 15 years for most people, while most people will have double that time or more with kids grown up. While I don’t remember if Emily has provided data on this point (I know she has on parents of young kids), I would venture to guess couples who have grown kids (and often grandkids, as a result) report higher than levels of contentment and life fulfillment than those who grow old without a family of their own beyond a spouse.