yeah, not quite. children actually tend to make you less happy than your peers. at least until they’re old enough to largely fend for themselves. At least in western cultures.

I suspect households with more than 2 adults the equation changes significantly. My experience is every child is a pleasure for 2 hours, no matter how badly they are misbehaving. So a household with enough adults to hand off the children may be able to maximize some kind of child additive happiness, though now you have to deal with added adult drama...