The Atlantic
Study: Parents live longer than non-parents
RESULTS: The death rate for childless women was 4 times higher than for women who had given birth. Women who had adopted had two-thirds the likelihood of dying prematurely. The death rate was also approximately halved for both biological and adoptive fathers. When the researchers controlled for things like age, education level, and income, these differences remained significant.
All of the deaths were attributed to circulatory disease, cancers, or accidents.
CONCLUSION: While unable to prove causation, the authors concluded that mortality rates are higher in people who don’t have children.
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Waiting for grandkids that their apparently not going to get.
Cindy Munford on December 6, 2012 at 1:27 PM
Translation: This entire poll is circular backpatting bullcr@p.
MelonCollie on December 6, 2012 at 1:28 PM
.
BS masquerading as scientific conclusion.
ExpressoBold on December 6, 2012 at 1:30 PM
It just seems longer when you have kids………
GWB on December 6, 2012 at 1:33 PM
Parents don’t live longer than non-parents. It just seems that way.
GWB — you beat me to it.
Old Country Boy on December 6, 2012 at 1:38 PM
Uggghhhh …. nothing like walking your infant around for an hour to get them back to sleep. From 2-3am. Time. Stands. Still.
But then they wake up and they’re happy to see you and they say “Hi daddy!” and give you a hug and it seems worth it.
Protip for parents: get some podcasts on your iPhone/whatever, or an audiobook, and listen to that while you’re walking them around. Run your headphones down the back of your shirt so your kid doesn’t grab them. Makes it slightly better.
Adam Carolla’s podcast is a good start, because it’s an hour or so, and it’s almost daily (and he has two weekend podcasts as well about cars and home repairs). Then I mix in some Business/Startups and Cloud Computing podcasts to fill in the gaps. I also listen to NPR late at night, because it’s typically a BBC feed and it’s kind of interesting to hear the news out of the UK.
strictnein on December 6, 2012 at 1:44 PM
Not. Walking around for an hour in the middle of the night? I’d say your baby has you trained.
Capitalist Hog on December 6, 2012 at 1:55 PM
Off topic, but sorta related: Does anyone watch Duck Dynasty? I just discovered it and it is my new favorite show. I have never actually laughed out loud at a reality show and this one had my cracking up the whole time. Normally I hate reality TV but stumbled across this when nothing else was on.
Faith, Family, and Crazy Uncle Si.
Good stuff, Jack!
ramrants on December 6, 2012 at 1:55 PM
Makes sense. A mother’s kids are likely to worry about what’s going on with Grandma, and grandmothers and mothers want to stick around for our kids.
Sekhmet on December 6, 2012 at 2:05 PM
We HAVE to live longer; grand children and great-grandchildren are the only way we can get our revenge on our children!
michaelo on December 6, 2012 at 2:06 PM
I would suggest music with which you can sing along – quietly. Hymns and some contemporary Christian music and some of the really old folk songs work well. It will help to calm the child and they will bond positively with your voice. (And, unless you’re outside one standard deviation on singing ability, how well you can carry a tune isn’t really important.)
Sometimes you actually do need to be up with a baby in the middle of the night.
GWB on December 6, 2012 at 2:12 PM
I only did that walking around business a couple of times before I had enough of it. Even in the middle of the night, I would strap the kids in the car seat and go for a quick ride around the neighborhood. That worked and took less time than pacing the floors. Then I noticed that they fell asleep even faster by just putting them in the car seat, rocking them back and forth, and playing some kind of white noise. Then I got hooked on the white noise and started listening to rain sounds on my iPod instead of music. See what kids do.
Live longer, but what kind of life is it? haha
Nick_Angel on December 6, 2012 at 2:16 PM
Sorry, but that nullifies the value of the entire study.
I can get a huge group of people to agree that the vast majority of BMW drivers are in fact aholes. And that is because they tend to be of a certain age, income bracket, socio-geo-political bracket, and they statistically crash more than average.
But if I can’t prove causality, that’s just hearsay dressed up as fact.
Not all muslims today are terrorists but most terrorists are muslims. Simple facts. Does it prove causality? Nope.
CorporatePiggy on December 6, 2012 at 2:21 PM
This is bad news for a dude like me. In my early 40s, never been married, no kids. Perhaps, I could be the exception. One hopes.
tommy71 on December 6, 2012 at 2:21 PM
Mortality rates are high? That makes soooooo much sense, I mean, doesn’t everybody die? So I guess for every birth, there’s eventually a death? Or at least an unexplained disappearance. Also, this story doesn’t mention what “premature” death is defined as. People die sooner or later and I’ve never seen an expiration date stamped on anyone. I believe that on some level we decide when it’s time to go and so we don’t die a moment sooner or later than we meant to.
stukinIL4now on December 6, 2012 at 2:30 PM
Us parents are too broke to die.
Little Boomer on December 6, 2012 at 3:30 PM
Just spitballin’ here, but I know I got more cautious in my activities after I got pregnant and gave birth. Knowing someone depends on you for everything makes you more careful about yourself.
juliesa on December 6, 2012 at 3:47 PM