This recent Atlantic article does a decent job at summarizing the argument: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/04/parenting-anxiety-happiness-childr

This recent Atlantic article does a decent job at summarizing the argument: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/04/parenting-anxiety-happiness-children/677960/ https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/04/parenting-... And these two books have good, if somewhat redundant surveys of the research: - No Two Alike: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1099821 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1099821 - Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10266902 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10266902 The tl;dr is that if you fall into the cohort that could likely adopt a child, your parenting decisions aren’t going to make much of an impact, beyond affecting your kid’s memories of their childhood and their relationship with you. And that doesn’t mean parents should become apathetic, but that it’s better to care about expressing warmth and kindness instead of stressing about achievement.