Let's Celebrate! Parents Reportedly Live Longer Than Nonparents

Although you may be "dead" tired from all that parenting begs of you, new research says that moms and dads live longer than childless individuals. In the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health's latest issue, a study named "Payback Time?" reports that "having children is associated with increased longevity."

The study looked at all men and women born between 1911 and 1925 and residing in Sweden from the age of 60 or earlier, some with children and some without. The researchers set out with the goal to discover whether having a child affected the risk of death, especially as the parent aged and needed increased help from loved ones when their health naturally worsened.

They found that those who became parents to at least one child did live longer — by age 60, men lived an average of two years longer than childless men of the same age and women lived an average of one-and-a-half years longer than childless women. By age 80, dads were expected to live around eight months longer than non-dads, while moms lived about seven months longer.

So what does this mean for harried moms and dads? Well, it means we'll live to spoil our grandkids, hopefully, and watch our kids attempt to deal with the stresses of parenthood for a few extra years. "Payback Time," indeed.