Higher Costs in Raising children Leads to Idealizing Parenthood

While raising a child is both economically and emotionally draining for parents, many parents insist that their children are an essential source of happiness in their lives. Parents create fairytale like images of raising their children as a way to justify the great economic investment that is required to raise them. This relates to justification of investment which we discussed in class. When parents put a lot of time and money into raising their children, they tend to justify their investment and tend to be more positive about it. Even parents of disabled children tend to be very postive about parenting since they put a lot of time and effort into rasing their child.

A study was conducted by psychological scientists Richard Eibach and Steven Mock from the University of Waterloo. There were two groups of parents studied. The first group was primed to think about how expensive it is to raise a child. The second group was primed to think about the costs and benefits of raising a child. Then the experimenters asked both groups a series of questions such as how happy they were spending time with their children and how much time they hoped to spend with their child their next day off of work. The study found that the first group, who had focused on the costs of raising a child, enjoyed spending time with their children much more and planned on spending more leisure time with their children.

The experimenters further discussed that in the past children went to work young and actually were of economic value for the family. During this time the emotional relationship between parent and child was much less affectionate then now. Today, children cost a lot to raise and because of this, there is an increase in the belief that parenting is emotional rewarding.

Sources:
Idealizing Parenthood to Rationalize Parental Investments

Parenting Children with Disabilities Becomes Less Taxing With Time