Of course, the image of parenthood that celebrity magazines like Us Weekly and People present is hugely unrealistic, especially when the parents are single mothers like Bullock.
Sasha Kill Ewald, who's revealing how marriage and parenthood affects wages, and helping us understand why economic inequality persists across generations—and also how we might break the cycle of poverty.
The results, just published in Psychological Science, suggest parenthood in general, and fatherhood in particular, really are blessings, even though the parent in question might sometimes feel they are in disguise.
But after years of putting off marriage, delaying parenthood and battling student debt, the so-called Generation Rent is at last emerging as a big driver of the housing boom in the rich world.
Moreover, a closer look showed that the differences in happiness and satisfaction were the result of men's scores alone going up with parenthood. Those of women did not change.
Children's roles as caregivers, providers of financial support or simply as a means of social contact might outweigh the negative aspects of parenthood.