Apparently They Missed The News That Their Lives Are Mostly Misery

A thriving subset of chick lit has devoted itself to retailing the downside of mothers’ lives. Thus, the gushy orthodoxy that motherhood is swell is in danger of being replaced by a new orthodoxy that says it’s a drag. Now, a study offers evidence that mothers don’t find their role so dismal after all. A project of the Institute for American Values, the University of Minnesota and the University of Connecticut, “The Motherhood Study” draws on extensive polling among mothers who have at least one child under age 18.

Asked how they’ve felt all or most of the time in the past year, mothers were more likely to say “content” (69 percent), “confident” (65 percent) and “appreciated” (48 percent) than to lament feeling “burdened” (11 percent), “isolated” (9 percent) or “depressed” (8 percent).