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Could it be that children are just happier than adults, regardless of their material assets. Adults have responsibilities and stresses that children do not - an

Could it be that children are just happier than adults, regardless of their material assets. Adults have responsibilities and stresses that children do not - and that is probably more of a causation than their material assets.

dnlrussell 11y ago
Children do have school though . . . Nothing makes me more unhappy than school.
- mhurron 11y ago
  The only time I was happier than when I was at school was right after I was finished with school, unemployed and living at home. I could do what I wanted, when I wanted to do it. At school I could learn, as much as I could get my hands on. I was much happier at school than I am now that I have to work. I almost hit it when I take a day off for no reason.
- sukilot 11y ago
  My (small) kids love school. School is very bad in USA and many other places, due to a bizarre set of constraints such as far too few teachers in budget.
jes5199 11y ago
I actually find responsibility to be a great source of joy and happiness, and remember my adolescence as unhappy because I didn't have thing that I had enough control over for them to be rewarding
nostrademons 11y ago
It could also be that happiness is strongly dependent upon where you stand relative to the people around you. Children don't compare themselves to much other than the immediate family, village, or neighborhood; they just don't have the life experience to know how people in different cities throughout the rest of the world live. Adults have had time to absorb cultural messages of inferiority: these are all the things that your counterparts in America do that you're missing out on. (Never mind that the Hollywood messages broadcast around the globe tend to cherry-pick the most glamorous, outrageous lifestyles and display them as normal.) It takes a lot of deliberate mental practice to learn not to care about what others have or what they might think of you, and few people bother.
- Dewie3 11y ago
  I didn't care about things when I was a kid which I do care about now. The difference is that I learnt that some things are "better" than others. And I only care about those things from a place of fear of being deprived of things which people with those things can seemingly get more easily. Some of it boils down to worrying and fretting about things which I don't, or maybe even can't, change. This has no root in rationality or pragmatism, so the usual arguments of having to care about such things because of adult responsibilities and problem fixing don't apply. Another facet is that this caring is only a projection of what you think you will feel in the having, or not-having, of those things. But many people have experienced that being one of the richest people in the world (the Western middle class and higher) isn't necessarily the most fulfilling existence that there is. Comfortable, perhaps, but not necessarily more than that.
- iamcurious 11y ago
  It takes a lot of deliberate mental practice to learn not to care about what others have or what they might think of you, and few people bother. Yes. We teach children to brush their teeth to avoid cavities. Maybe we should also teach them to brush their minds to avoid anxiety.
  - Dewie3 11y ago
    > Maybe we should also teach them to brush their minds to avoid anxiety. Isn't it children that should be teaching us about that? :)
    - pixl97 11y ago
      Too bad it's mostly driven by marketers trying to make us more anxious about what we don't have. "Don't have the newest Timmy the Dinosaur toy? Your parents don't love you any more!"
      - HeyLaughingBoy 11y ago
        As a parent with a 5 year-old and a 14 year-old, I assure you that the word "no" is quite effective.

dnlrussell 11y ago

Children do have school though . . . Nothing makes me more unhappy than school.

mhurron 11y ago
The only time I was happier than when I was at school was right after I was finished with school, unemployed and living at home. I could do what I wanted, when I wanted to do it. At school I could learn, as much as I could get my hands on. I was much happier at school than I am now that I have to work. I almost hit it when I take a day off for no reason.
sukilot 11y ago
My (small) kids love school. School is very bad in USA and many other places, due to a bizarre set of constraints such as far too few teachers in budget.

jes5199 11y ago

I actually find responsibility to be a great source of joy and happiness, and remember my adolescence as unhappy because I didn't have thing that I had enough control over for them to be rewarding

nostrademons 11y ago

It could also be that happiness is strongly dependent upon where you stand relative to the people around you. Children don't compare themselves to much other than the immediate family, village, or neighborhood; they just don't have the life experience to know how people in different cities throughout the rest of the world live. Adults have had time to absorb cultural messages of inferiority: these are all the things that your counterparts in America do that you're missing out on. (Never mind that the Hollywood messages broadcast around the globe tend to cherry-pick the most glamorous, outrageous lifestyles and display them as normal.) It takes a lot of deliberate mental practice to learn not to care about what others have or what they might think of you, and few people bother.

Dewie3 11y ago
I didn't care about things when I was a kid which I do care about now. The difference is that I learnt that some things are "better" than others. And I only care about those things from a place of fear of being deprived of things which people with those things can seemingly get more easily. Some of it boils down to worrying and fretting about things which I don't, or maybe even can't, change. This has no root in rationality or pragmatism, so the usual arguments of having to care about such things because of adult responsibilities and problem fixing don't apply. Another facet is that this caring is only a projection of what you think you will feel in the having, or not-having, of those things. But many people have experienced that being one of the richest people in the world (the Western middle class and higher) isn't necessarily the most fulfilling existence that there is. Comfortable, perhaps, but not necessarily more than that.
iamcurious 11y ago
It takes a lot of deliberate mental practice to learn not to care about what others have or what they might think of you, and few people bother. Yes. We teach children to brush their teeth to avoid cavities. Maybe we should also teach them to brush their minds to avoid anxiety.
- Dewie3 11y ago
  > Maybe we should also teach them to brush their minds to avoid anxiety. Isn't it children that should be teaching us about that? :)
  - pixl97 11y ago
    Too bad it's mostly driven by marketers trying to make us more anxious about what we don't have. "Don't have the newest Timmy the Dinosaur toy? Your parents don't love you any more!"
    - HeyLaughingBoy 11y ago
      As a parent with a 5 year-old and a 14 year-old, I assure you that the word "no" is quite effective.