A new study has been conducted that indicates if you want a happy household, you should have two girls. Two daughters are more likely to confide in their parents, play well together, argue infrequently and generally create a peaceful environment to live in.
The study, commissioned by bounty.com, consisted of 2,116 parents with children under the age of 16 (excluding only children), revealed that although families with two daughters are the happiest, families with four daughters are the most unhappy.
The participants were asked to rank their households in categories such as 'easy to reason' with, 'helped around the house' and generally 'liked each other'. In families with two daughters, the ranks were very high in all categories.
In families with four daughters parents often said they had to referee about four fights a day and one in three parents find it hard to cope with on a daily basis. Unlike families with two daughters, when an individual has four daughters the children know how to annoy each other, might not play well together and will argue frequently. The larger families were generally more unhappy because they found it hard to create a balance within their daily lives.
The larger families also felt pressure to buy larger cars and a large home to accommodate their growing family. Larger families also felt they neglected at least one of their children every now and then because of the difficulties of managing such a large group of children.
The second best combination was two children, a boy and a girl, because they often got along. They would not fight over toys, and were easy to reason with, but due to being different genders they lacked similar interested while growing up.
Families with two boys, which ranked third, found that their children were good friends and got along. They found that the boys would not confide in the parents, which is different than the girls who often confided in their parents, which was a major component that put them in third place.
Obviously parents cannot choose the gender of their children, and all of the parents surveyed expressed that they loved their children dearly, but it may cause people to reconsider how many children they would like to have and what the 'perfect combination is'.
'BEST' TO 'WORST' COMBINATIONS OF CHILDREN:
1. Two girls
2. One boy and one girl
3. Two boys
4. Three girls
5. Three boys
6. Four boys
7. Two girls and one boy
8. Two boys and one girl
9. Three boys and one girl
10. Three girls and one boy
11. Two boys and two girls
12. Four girls
What do you think? Do you think this study is accurate? We'd love to hear your thoughts in our chat forums!
Courtesy of 'Yahoo! Lifestyle UK'
