Parenting
People are less happy when they are interacting with their children than when they are eating, exercising, shopping or watching television. An act of parenting makes most people about as happy as an act of housework. (See A survey method for characterizing daily life experience by Alan Krueger, Norbert Schwarz, etc.) Economists have consistently found that children have a small negative impact on parents’ happiness. (See “The macroeconomics of happiness” by Rafael M. DiTella, Robert MacCulloch, & Andrew Oswald.)
When we pay a lot for something, we assume it makes us happy. Given the high price we pay, it isn’t surprising that we rationalize those costs and conclude that our children must be repaying us with happiness.