Friday, July 11, 2008

Kids & Happiness

Newsweek recently did an article on some studies showing that people with kids are less happy than people without kids. According to the article, "Parents experience lower levels of emotional well-being, less frequent positive emotions and more frequent negative emotions than their childless peers," says Florida State University's Robin Simon, a sociology professor who's conducted several recent parenting studies, the most thorough of which came out in 2005 and looked at data gathered from 13,000 Americans by the National Survey of Families and Households. "In fact, no group of parents—married, single, step or even empty nest—reported significantly greater emotional well-being than people who never had children. It's such a counterintuitive finding because we have these cultural beliefs that children are the key to happiness and a healthy life, and they're not."

When Simon was interviewed by NPR, she said she thought the feelings of unhappiness stem from the lack of support systems for parents. "I would say it's not from their kids per se, I would say that it comes from the social conditions in which contemporary parents parent."

I totally agree with Simon's theory that the lack of support systems for parents contributes to the crazed, unhappy environment in which we parent. Whether both parents work outside the home or only one parent works outside the home, the rise in extracurricular activities, sports, tutoring, etc. while enriching our kids' lives, also makes for busier lives.

Not only do parents need support systems for much-needed breaks from the kids (I'm a strong believer that I'm a better mom when I get "me" time) but parents also need help with just the household STUFF that piles up on a daily basis. You know what I mean - the dishes, the laundry, the toys, the dust, etc.! Enter Simplify. Having been there myself and knowing all too well that sinking feeling from just looking at a sinkful of dishes (no pun intended!) and baskets piled high with laundry (clean laundry, mind you - it's the putting away that sucks up time), it's no wonder that Simplify's household assistants are one of our most popular solutions these days.
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