Interesting! I’m sure it’s true for some women, especially if the alternative is a dud of a guy who doesn’t pull his weight. I was depressed and didn’t take care of myself as a single woman. Having love, support, and a family to take care of us given me purpose and happiness.

Anonymous wrote:I’m 44, never married and no kids. I think I’m a lot happier than most of my friends because I don’t have relationship, kid or financial stress. I only have to worry about myself. I travel internationally 10x a year. Lately I’ve been asking myself if I’d regret my choices not to have a family when I’m 60, but for the moment (and the present moment is what matters) I am happy. I don’t need to find my purpose through a spouse or children.

This is a really interesting perspective. I always wanted to be married, and I wasted a lot of my 'single carefree' years worrying about no being married. I LOVE being married, but only recently decided to have a child (just one). But I never would have had a child if I expected to be happy in the present moment all the time.

Children are a garden. It takes years of tilling, sowing, sprouting, watering, shielding and all sorts of physical and emotional toil to grow a beautiful garden. A family is something you build to enjoy many years down the road. If I look at the day-to-day moments over the past three years it's a tapestry of the highest highs and the lowest lows, but when I think of walking through my life with my husband and the sweet little soul we're nurturing, then I couldn't be happier or more excited for the future. I guess to me (for the moment), the future is what matters.

Yeah, I drank the Kool aid I guess but I can't see single, never married, no kids life to be something I'd ever want

I like being married. I am much happier being married than I was being single.

No kids - and no desire for kids. I think if I had kids I would be less happy.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yep, mom of 1 here, this makes sense. I have absolutely no evidence of this, but I'd imagine parents have more extreme highs and lows of emotions, but that on average, childless people are happier in their day to day lives.

I agree

The highs and lows are worth it to me. A life of being slightly content but without the joys of children.. no thanks

[b]

Slightly content? Who says it’s only slightly? You, perhaps.

I dunno? Maybe I'm wrong. I feel like life needs a bigger purpose than just working a job and seeing some sights and hanging out with friends..

Why are you reducing single life to that? Maybe that's all you did before you popped out your snowflakes, but single life can be very rich and fulfilling.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yep, mom of 1 here, this makes sense. I have absolutely no evidence of this, but I'd imagine parents have more extreme highs and lows of emotions, but that on average, childless people are happier in their day to day lives.

I agree

The highs and lows are worth it to me. A life of being slightly content but without the joys of children.. no thanks

[b]

Slightly content? Who says it’s only slightly? You, perhaps.

I dunno? Maybe I'm wrong. I feel like life needs a bigger purpose than just working a job and seeing some sights and hanging out with friends..

So everyone must procreate? You've certainly drunk the mom Kool Aid.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yep, mom of 1 here, this makes sense. I have absolutely no evidence of this, but I'd imagine parents have more extreme highs and lows of emotions, but that on average, childless people are happier in their day to day lives.

I agree

The highs and lows are worth it to me. A life of being slightly content but without the joys of children.. no thanks

[b]

Slightly content? Who says it’s only slightly? You, perhaps.

I dunno? Maybe I'm wrong. I feel like life needs a bigger purpose than just working a job and seeing some sights and hanging out with friends..

Another BS article about happiness. Add it to the ones that say money doesn't make you happy. If you agree with that, I would be happy to take your money. LOL

Anonymous wrote:I love my child and she gives me purpose.
But sometime I think, “ I’ve committed myself to a lifetime of worry”
“I shall literally worry for the rest of my life.”

+1

I think that it's true a lot of single women are happy because of the reasons others have stated. They have more autonomy over their life and choices.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yep, mom of 1 here, this makes sense. I have absolutely no evidence of this, but I'd imagine parents have more extreme highs and lows of emotions, but that on average, childless people are happier in their day to day lives.

I agree

The highs and lows are worth it to me. A life of being slightly content but without the joys of children.. no thanks

[b]

Slightly content? Who says it’s only slightly? You, perhaps.

Anonymous wrote:Yep, mom of 1 here, this makes sense. I have absolutely no evidence of this, but I'd imagine parents have more extreme highs and lows of emotions, but that on average, childless people are happier in their day to day lives.

I agree

The highs and lows are worth it to me. A life of being slightly content but without the joys of children.. no thanks

Anonymous wrote:My thoughts are that I don't give a flying crap if Paul Dolan is a professor of behavioural science at the London School of Economics and I don't give a flying crap if he said the latest evidence showed that the traditional markers used to measure success did not correlate with happiness – particularly marriage and raising children.

He still doesn't get to speak for ALL women or ANY women for that matter so he can stick his hypothesis up his ass.

You don't sound happy.

Anonymous wrote:I agree with the article but only if the woman is able to let go of the idea that she ought to be married or have kids. Once that belief is discarded she can probably be the happiest person in the world if she is making a decent living and doing exactly what she wants in life.

Agree. The single, childless women I know who are still striving for the husband, kids, dog, and picket fence are in constant turmoil. The ones who have let go of that expectation are happy.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have read several studies that lean toward this over the years. I believe it for the most part. Every older single woman I know is happy - they have no relationship complications; don’t have to take care of anyone but themselves; don’t have to worry about grown children or grandchildren.

Uh huh. You're not seeing the part where she weeps bitterly into her glass of cheap white wine, mourns the emptiness of her barren womb, and wonders where the years went.

This is a very weird statement. 44 year old again. I feel like a lot of people look at me like um missing out or pity me, but I look at them and think they’re missing out. Its just different ways of looking at like, everyone is different and we don’t have to want the same things. I don’t cry about my barren womb, I genuinely don’t want kids. If biology made it possible for me to have kids at 74, maybe by then I’d be ready to settle down but for right now all I want is a quiet life and to travel.