[wyager]

> Life is going to suck anyway, might as well drag others along for the ride

How in the world did you get that from anything I said?

I can't pick out any part of my comment that could be construed to mean that.

Marginal life is (as of now) more or less strictly positive EV, as is the expected internalized and externalized outcome of most of the people on this site having kids.

> Unpartnered older childfree women are one of the happiest cohorts

I really really doubt this is the case. Typically for sociology research, there are tons of papers claiming strong effect sizes of child-rearing on life satisfaction in both directions. However, older women are by far the subpopulation most dependent on psychoactive drugs such as antidepressants. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db377.htm I unfortunately can't find any studies that break down antidepressant use rates by parental status at all, or a fortiori by age/marriage/parental status individually.