In Germany, more than 2000 people were interviewed over a period of several years as part of a social survey – before they became parents and in the first few years of parenthood, and were asked to rate their own happiness during that time.
On average, researchers Rachel Margolis and Mikko Myrskylä found that in the first year of life, parents’ levels of happiness were “devastatingly bad — worse than divorce, worse than unemployment and worse even than the death of a partner.”
And, of course, a significant portion of mothers suffer from Post Natal Depression, making those early years the most difficult and stressful of their lives.
But what we do need to reassure the not-parents-yet amongst us is that yes, for most of us, happiness as we knew it may throw itself out of the window when we have babies, but what replaces it is so, so much more.
