--- title: Do Fathers Love Their Children Less Than Mothers Do? description: Moms report getting more happiness from their children whereas fathers ranked kids no higher than their career. Women in relationships got a happiness boost after... canonical: https://time.com/2859665/do-fathers-love-their-children-less-than-mothers-do/ author: Eric Barker article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-06-14T04:01:20.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:54:14.784Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Do Fathers Love Their Children Less Than Mothers Do? og:description: Moms report getting more happiness from their children whereas fathers ranked kids no higher than their career. 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Women in relationships got a happiness boost after having children. Men only seemed to derive well-being from the relationship. For example, **a 1997 Pew Survey found that “ninty-three percent of mothers think their children are a source of happiness all or most of the time. Eighty-six percent of mothers of children under age eighteen say their relationship to their children is crucial to their personal happiness (10 on a 10-point scale).” On the other hand, for men, children often rank no higher than career as a source of happiness.** And: …Additionally, Kohler, Behrman and Skytthe identify a substantial and significant male-female difference in the effect of children on well-being—after controlling for the effect of a current partnership. **“Females derive happiness gains from children even after controlling for current partnership status. The happiness of males, however, depends primarily on partnership status; once current partnership is controlled, men’s happiness does not vary systematically with fertility.”** Source: “The New Battle of the Sexes: Understanding the Reversal of the Happiness Gender Gap” from Ave Maria University, Department of Economics, Working Papers, number 1004. **Join 25K+ readers.** Get a free weekly update via email [here](http://eepurl.com/o6uAD). 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