So we’d be happier as empty-nester parents? That’s rubbish | Simon Hattenstone

My children are adults, and the house is buzzing with life. Even thinking of them leaving fills me with a sense of loss

Christoph Becker and his colleagues at Heidelberg University in Germany have discovered that people with kids are actually happier than people without – so long as the kids have left home. Their analysis of 55,000 people aged 50 and older from 16 European countries revealed that people with children who had fled the nest had greater life satisfaction and fewer symptoms of depression than those without children.

But according to an even newer cross-sectional survey of parents, this is a load of pants. Using the established qualitative research method of the one-to-one interview, I asked my partner and the mother of my children what she thought. Certainly not true for us, she said. I then extended the focus group by asking myself what I thought – nah, bollocks, I told myself.

Related: Don’t fall for the panic about empty nest syndrome | Gaby Hinsliff

Related: ‘See the positives, revisit old interests’: how to cope with an empty nest

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from Children | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2Z7s9wC