The Stressful Life (Sorry, Parents)

Conventional wisdom says stress is the default condition of modern life. New polling by Gallup calls that notion into question-for people who don’t have kids underfoot, that is. Seventy-six percent of adults said they experience stress in their daily lives at least sometimes, but many fewer (40 percent) said they suffer “frequently.” Parents will be unsurprised to learn that the incidence of frequent stress is considerably higher for people with children in the household. Forty-nine percent of parents with kids under 18 said they experience frequent daily stress, while 37 percent said they do so sometimes and 15 percent rarely or never.