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Statistically having minor children has been shown to make people less happy.

https://ifstudies.org/blog/does-having-children-make-people-...

I’ve never had to deal with raising small children - I have two stepsons for whom I’ve been their only father since they were 9-14 (now 18-23). But they were already mostly self sufficient by that time. They were at the fun age. Not the helpless baby stage where they couldn’t do anything for themselves.

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'Happiness' studies show up now and again and I've got to say that I've always found them suspect. The polling, the questions, the conclusions are so fungible that I find it hard to believe that there's any value in them.

Satisfaction is a more interesting measure and isn't necessarily reflected in questions of how "happy" you are. I bet a poll would find that start-up founders are less happy than people with stable jobs at large corporations. Does that prove anything about whether or not someone should do a start-up?

The entire presupposition that we're supposed to be little happiness optimizing robots always struck me as completely bonkers. I'm pretty sure it's something designed to sell more soap or greetings cards.

The helpless baby stage is over in the blink of an eye. For me they start getting fun once they can smile and laugh, which is often in the first six months.

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