Posted By Jennie Chancey on February 1, 2011

Another excellent piece from Mercatornet:

According to this Wall Street Journal blog piece:

That’s the question of new, dueling research articles out in the February issue of the Journal of Marriage and Family, which try to explain the decline in marital happiness of some new mothers.

I don’t need a research article (never mind two) to answer that question. When I had my first baby, my “decline in marital happiness” could be summed up in one word: exhaustion. Chronic sleep deprivation can undo your sanity, never mind your relationships. But I’m being facetious. Overall, my marital happiness didn’t decline; it changed—into something richer, fuller, certainly more challenging, but ultimately soul-expanding. My marriage changed, but that’s what you can expect with any major life transformation, which parenthood undoubtedly is….

My husband and I have seven children, and we’ve been married almost 25 years (happier than ever, I might add). That didn’t happen by magic. Marital satisfaction takes effort; it is difficult, if not impossible to achieve if either partner is unwilling to contribute to the other’s happiness. Perhaps it goes beyond the question of the purpose of marriage to the very purpose of human existence.

Read the entire piece here.

Categories: Mothering, Responsible Manhood
Tags: children, Mothering, parenting