The following Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Mark Sisson,

and is narrated by Tina Lehman.

Seven primal ways to bridge the parent happiness gap.

Particularly when you're a parent, October can be a transitional month.

I remember feeling like we'd just gotten the kids settled in school,

and suddenly we were knee-deep in extracurricular activities, class projects,

parent-teacher conferences, and the holidays.

On my more exhausted days, I felt like we were navigating a two-month bender of parties and concerts, costumes, and events. On the one hand,

it was fun to see the kids' excitement. It made for good memories, but it also exacted an extended

toll. When every week is special, it's wearing. These days, life is

simpler on the family front, but every once in a while I'll remember those more frenetic patches.

It's easy to be nostalgic on the other side of the dog's years, but I haven't forgotten the

harder truth of parenting. Sometimes it's a slog through

overwhelm, and research reflects that much. But does it need to be as heavy as we often make it?

At issue is the so-called happiness gap observed by many studies when they compare parents and

non-parents. American parents in particular fare poorly with a 13% happiness penalty when juxtaposed with non-parents.

Interestingly, researchers saw the gap shrink and even reverse for both mothers and fathers

in countries that offered more advantageous parenting policies, such as lower

child care costs and added workday flexibility.

Other studies cite more family-oriented, nuanced factors involved in the happiness gap,

such as the age of both parents and children.

Older parents, for example, appear to be happier than parents younger than 25. Not

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