ifstudies.org
2026-10-07
Conventional wisdom holds that children bring a special kind of existential purpose into the lives of their parents. A Pew survey of 17 countries found that "family and children" was by far the most commonly selected source of meaning in life, and a survey of Greeks found that 87% of parents marked "giving meaning to life" as an advantage of having children.
However, having children can be difficult, which may explain why, for some parents at least, well-being actually tends to dip when there are young children in the home. In one sense, this is completely unsurprising. If happiness is viewed in terms of what is known as hedonic pleasure--the pleasures of life like sleep, spare time, and fun out on the town--then it makes sense that children can feel like a net negative. Children are not fun in the same way as a night out dancing or playing a videogame.