Sure, the soccer uniforms, piano lessons and college tuition add
up—but there is nothing like being a parent. Or so we tell
ourselves, according to a study in the February issue of
Psychological Science. When parents are faced with the financial
costs of a child, they justify their investment by playing up
parenthood’s emotional payoffs. Psychologists at the University
of Waterloo in Ontario gave parents in the study a government
report estimating that bringing up a child to age 18 costs more
than $190,000. Then half the parents read an additional report
about the financial help grown children pro-vide their parents.
Those who read only about the high price tag were more likely to
agree with statements idealizing the emotional benefits of
parenthood, such as “There is nothing more rewarding in this
life than raising a child.” Such rationalization is a common
response to cognitive dissonance, the state of having two
conflicting ideas in mind, according to psychological theory. In
this scenario, the choice the