2+3+4PM Time says parenting makes you unhealthy.

A recent article in Time revealed that research indicates that being a parent is statistically bad for your health. The short version is that you eat worse and exercise less when you have kids than when you don’t. Hence, having kids puts you at higher risk of being fat and at risk for a variety of health adversities. I think the first knee-jerk reaction to this is to dispute the findings or to be outraged at yet another attack on parenting and children from Time magazine. Okay. But here’s my take. Der. How many thousands (I hesitate to consider millions) of dollars were spent proving what any parent in the universe could have told you was true?

But of course kids have adverse impact on your body. They cost you all sorts of things. I used to be really good at pool and I knew new music a lot and I read more books when I wasn’t a dad. Of course. I mean, imagine if someone came out with a story showing that having children is economically disadvantageous. Booorringgg, right? So why is it offensive to imagine that children may be bad for our bodies, either directly or just by virtue of taking time away from maintaining them? See, the underlying premise of stories like this (in my opinion) is that bodies are good (and money is good). Therefore it’s a bit dumb to become a parent. Well, isn’t that generous and Godly of you!

Of course children are costly in myriad ways. It’s cheaper to not have them. You’re healthier and probably prettier when you don’t have them. You certainly can more easily have fun as a couple without them. So what? None of those things are the reasons why you should have them in the first place. And if there are costs, even big ones, associated with giving life to another human being, well at least you can say you’re just returning the favor. There are lots and lots of costs of having children, and that’s just the price of doing business. So stop pretending that you have to have all these material advantages, as though married parents are somehow in a competition with single people for the “who has the best life” cup.