Why men like visiting their parents and women dont

They may moan and groan about having to go see their folks, but a new survey has found that men, and not women, are the ones that love visiting their parents.

London, Sept 27 : They may moan and groan about having to go see their folks, but a new survey has found that men, and not women, are the ones that love visiting their parents.

The finding is based on one of two major surveys into happiness, but with both teams of researchers reaching the same conclusion - that women are unhappier than men.

However, the researchers also revealed that there is a good reason why women don't look forward to visiting their parents.

The researchers found that when a man goes to look up his parents, he typically spends the day lounging on the sofa with his dad, sharing a bottle of beer, watching sports, daughters on the other hand, go straight to work - helping their parents pay the bills, cooking the food or planning a family get-together.

The study was conducted by Alan Krueger, an economist at Princeton University in New Jersey.

Krueger compared surveys on time-use taken since the Sixties, and found that while men have learnt how to relax more, work less and gradually cut back on activities they find unpleasant, women are still working as hard as they used to - replacing housework with paid work, and are doing different tasks over the same amount of time.

"The most likely explanation for the happiness trends is that women now have a much longer to-do list than they once did, including helping their ageing parents," the Daily Mail quoted Krueger, as saying.

"They can't possibly get it all done, so many end up feeling as if they are somehow falling short.

"For men, being with their parents tends to be sitting on the sofa and watching football with dad."

The second study was the work of husband and wife economists Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers at the University of Pennsylvania.

They found that while in 1976, 16 per cent of men were satisfied with their lives, the number had increased to 25 percent in current times.

However, the number of women satisfied with their lives had not increased or decreased, remaining at a constant 22 percent over 40 odd years.

Miss Stevenson said: "Thirty or 40 years ago, women were happier because they probably had narrower ambitions.

"They compared themselves to each other and not to men.

"Now women are more competitive and more ambitious.

"But it seems it doesn't make them any happier."

ANI