Joy of parenthood 'fades after child reaches two'

The joy of being a parent fades after the child reaches the age of two, researchers said today.

The euphoria of getting married also wears off because people simply adapt to the feeling, the same report said.

However, this means people also adapt to traumatic life changes like being widowed or divorced.

Researchers including Yannis Georgellis, economist and senior lecturer at Brunel University in north west London, looked at what makes people happy.

They found people quickly adjusted to changes like pay rises, marriage and children and did not report long-term improvements in their happiness.

Mr Georgellis, the report's co-author, said: "The positive effect of having children may be transitory. Very quickly you get back to your baseline.

"Then there's the stress of parenthood. The first year with a baby is very nice but then you have the terrible twos.

"When you ask parents how they feel about their life, they can feel miserable."

The paper was based on research which asked people about their happiness during a 25-year period.

Mr Georgellis added: "Things may get better in the future. If you asked them in another 20 years' time they may be very happy and glad that they had children."

The research found a period of unemployment had a dramatic effect on a person's long-term happiness even if they found a new job.

"People adapt quickly to marriage or divorce but unemployment has a longer term effect. People who have experienced unemployment in the past seem to be affected negatively. They don't feel good about themselves."

He said the long-term effect of a spell of unemployment has been shown in several research papers but no-one is sure why its effects linger so long.

The research, published in the Economic Journal, was carried out by Mr Georgellis, Andrew Clark of the Paris School of Economics and psychologists Ed Diener, of the University of Illinois, and Richard Lucas, of Michigan State University.