If we follow one another on Twitter, you may have felt me bristling just a little bit last Thursday. There was news about parent happiness – and I wasn’t a fan of the scientists’ suggestion. So I called the lead researcher up, and here’s what I found.
Dads are happier than moms. Science wants to know why, and so do I.
Published on Washington Post, February 6, 2019
The answer is easy. Dad’s are happier because women are never satisfied. Exhibit A is the never ending demands and complaining of the current feminists. Truly, women just never seen to be satisfied.
Thanks for reading, David! I am glad for you that you are happy. 🙂
I read your perspective in the Washington Post and thought I would share some personal context. Knowing I am possibly an outlier I worked to not take offense at the grandparent effect reference 🙂 I our household we work to allot the load of our three boys (7, 12, 15). My wife owns the day to day scheduling and homework check-in, I handle big school projects. She mostly owns school lunch prep and I handle dinner most nights and all the laundry. From my personal experience (at home and other families) I think you hit on a cause but not directly. I think independent of parental work load balance mom’s have a different state of mind. They are often worried about what is not getting done or how it could be better – e.g. if a child is struggling with money math will playing monopoly a mom worries about this being a sign of math struggles – dads seem more able to be in the moment. I worry this internal pressure to always do better wears on moms everywhere. I am reminded of themes covered in “her best kept secret” by Gabrielle Glaser
Thanks for reading and for your thoughts, Tom!