Giving Birth to Meaning: Understanding Parenthood Through the Psychology of Meaning in Life

In a long list of qualities that make us “uniquely human,” our capacity and urge to seek after an ultimate, abstract meaning for our lives surely must take a position near the top. Perhaps another entry might be our propensity to look for resources to help us understand our role as parent, learn how to be better at performing this role, and purchase books and gadgets that promise to make it all easier. Although there are large scholarly literatures on both meaning in life and on parenthood, there are surprisingly few entries that address both. We review this niche of literature and argue that viewing parenthood as an existential matter may yield new insights into the profound impact of parenting—or trying to become a parent—has in people’s lives. We present examples of a variety of parenthood domains and tasks conceptualized through a meaning in life lens and identify some of the difficulties people may encounter along the path of parenthood. We elucidate how the challenges and successes inherent in parenting experiences might contribute to or detract from the meaning people derive from parenting in addition to ways in which parenting may add to people’s overall sense of their lives as meaningful.