First we heard that our children make us fat.  Now, according to this WashingtonPost.com article, having children is decreasing our life spans as well.  Or was, because the research was performed on 22,000 couples.  Mormon couples.  From the 19th century.  Who averaged an output of 8 children per couple!  Well, no wonder!

However, those parents had their revenge, as apparently the toll was enacted on the children just as heavily as it was on the parents. Being the youngest of a large brood was a death sentence for about 25% of the offspring.  Yipes!

The upshot of this disheartening but admittedly outdated data seems to be that having children adds certain stresses to our lives that may affect our lifespan.  However, I'd rather die with the memory of my son's laughter than never having had experienced it.  As a mother of four, it's pretty clear that those gray hairs I've been staring at glumly in the mirror are but a sign that my end is near, nearer perhaps than my child-free neighbor is to hers. But, oh, what a way to go.