Competition and Happiness

Labor day is a joke now. We work more hours than we care to work, way more than the 40 hour weeks that some heroic people fought for long ago. We are in the age in of global competition. If you can't do it cheaper, someone else will. If not in this country, in a different country. If not with older, more mature employees, with younger, more eager employees. 

Our Assets

We often define "asset" as something tangible we own. Search Institute has researched developmental assets (positive relationships, values, and skills) that kids need at different ages (http://www.search-institute.org/research/assets) to become caring, responsible adults. 

What are the assets that make us contented parents? Site Administrator from Ohio, commented that one of them is alone time. Others I have talked to have mentioned the following:

• Hobby
• Supportive spouse
• External support (friends, parents who can pitch in and help)
• Hired help (nanny, cleaner, gardener, and such)
• Kids in the neighborhood
• Extra classes for kids
• No extra classes for kids
• Eating before feeding your kids

What do you think?

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness

Studies have consistently shown that parents, in general, are unhappier than non-parents. Quoting from a newsweek article:

In Daniel Gilbert's 2006 book "Stumbling on Happiness," the Harvard professor of psychology looks at several studies and concludes that marital satisfaction decreases dramatically after the birth of the first child—and increases only when the last child has left home. He also ascertains that parents are happier grocery shopping and even sleeping than spending time with their kids. Other data cited by 2008's "Gross National Happiness" author, Arthur C. Brooks, finds that parents are about 7 percentage points less likely to report being happy than the childless.

The most recent comprehensive study on the emotional state of those with kids shows us that the term "bundle of joy" may not be the most accurate way to describe our offspring. "Parents experience lower levels of emotional well-being, less frequent positive emotions and more frequent negative emotions than their childless peers," says Florida State University's Robin Simon, a sociology professor who's conducted several recent parenting studies, the most thorough of which came out in 2005 and looked at data gathered from 13,000 Americans by the National Survey of Families and Households. "In fact, no group of parents—married, single, step or even empty nest—reported significantly greater emotional well-being than people who never had children. It's such a counterintuitive finding because we have these cultural beliefs that children are the key to happiness and a healthy life, and they're not."

What makes you unhappy? What keeps you happy? Why do you think parents are unhappier?