Smashing snooze on the biological clock

New York Magazine has this really great feature on the modern dilemma of having children. Essentially it explores whether there is a dichotomy between parenting and individual happiness, and the nebulous attempts to define what the hell happiness really is anyways.

Rarely do articles both provoke thought and are relatable these days, but this one indeed hits the mark twice.

Full disclosure: all my friends are having kids. Literally, all of them. By November I'll have known nine couples who had children this year.

I'm obviously not going to foster children any time soon (I haven't quite perfected a-sexual reproduction yet). Still, the mere thought of being a parent induces mild panic attack type reaction from my body.

From the perspective of the species, it’s perfectly unmysterious why people have children. From the perspective of the individual, however, it’s more of a mystery than one might think. Most people assume that having children will make them happier. Yet a wide variety of academic research shows that parents are not happier than their childless peers, and in many cases are less so. This finding is surprisingly consistent, showing up across a range of disciplines.

Despite a sombre title (All Joy and No Fun: Why parents hate parenting) the story is actually patently informative, objective and insightful about the myriad complexities involved with bringing life into the world that so often go untalked about.

A great read whether you want kids, or not, or simply are of the age where this is even an interesting topic.