Despite rumours to the contrary, parenting is anything but a one-size-?ts-all experience. Some parents enjoy parenting more than others, or derive greater meaning from it, or both.
Here’s what you need to know: Dads enjoy parenthood more.
The following is going to make for somewhat annoying reading, particularly if you happen to be a non-dad. But I hope you?ll slog through it regardless. There?s some important stuff here about stubborn gender norms that make life harder for moms and dads alike?which, I should add, means any person of any gender who happens to step into either of those prepackaged roles.
If you?ve always had a nagging suspicion that being a dad tends to be more fun than being a mom, well, it turns out that science is on your side. There?s a solid body of evidence to make the case that mothers report ?less happiness, more stress, and greater fatigue? during the time they spend with children than fathers do, as Cornell University?s Kelly Musick reported in a 2016 study published in the American Sociological Review. She then identi?ed a few key factors that help to explain why this is the case. For starters, the job description for ?father? is a whole lot more manageable than the job description for ?mother.? There are more ?exible and more realistic models of what it means to be ?a good dad? as compared to ?a good mom.? As Musick and her co-authors explain, ?Multiple models of good fathering have emerged emphasizing to varying degrees fathers? contribut...