Why marriage is twice as stressful as raising children

Raising kids is not easy. I already feel qualified to say that, despite only having one.

It's a wonderful chaotic thing that, for me anyway, brings more than enough happiness to make the stress worthwhile. But it's still bloody stressful at times. As a single parent, however, I'm possibly not qualified to comment on the findings of this new research. A study has found that marriage stresses women out more than children do. In fact, this research has ascertained that marriage is twice as stressful as raising kids. Double the stress? Wow. The study conducted by researchers from the University of Padova found that 75% of the women involved did most of the parenting and household duties. One in five of the women in the study said that their main cause of stress resulted from a lack of support from their other half. The study also discovered that the health of a man often deteriorates drastically when their wife passes away. However, when a woman loses her husband, she statistically becomes healthier and women handle the stress of the loss better too. "Widows cope significantly better than widowers with the stress deriving from the loss of a partner," said Dr Caterina Trevisan, of the University of Padova. Dr. Caterina spoke to The Telegraph, explaining that the stress of raising children is often far more short-lived than that of the stress of a marriage.

"Since women generally have a longer lifespan than men, married women may also suffer from the effects of caregiver burden, since they often devote themselves to caring for their husband in later life."

I don't know about you, but I'm stressed just writing this. In spite of these grim stats, there's no doubt that many husbands are supportive, equal partners in marriages and parenting alike. #notallhusbands

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