The same is true for science

Ezra Klein ponders the often-stated result that having children decreases your happiness. He parses the research a bit more, and compares happiness to living a satisfying life. He concludes with this:

It may not be very fun to do your work or care for your children, but the two seem to be important contributors to a satisfying life. Which makes intuitive sense. On a moment-to-moment basis, I sort of loathe writing this blog. I would far rather be drinking a beer on my porch. But in the aggregate, I'm much more satisfied with my life when I'm writing this blog. I guess what I'm trying to say is that these data leave me confident that having children will be almost as rewarding as writing a blog. And I plan to tell that to them, and often.