The last few days I have been thinking about families and how many people make up each individual immediate family. It makes me feel good that there are so many varied combinations and all of them are just right. In a family there doesn't seem to be a wrong number.
I know many only children and I also know many people who grew up as one of 5+ children, my husband is one of them.
When we signed up for NCT (birthing classes) pre-my oldest, people in the class were already asking 'How many do you think you'll have?' Everyone in the class had a different answer, they were all personal and made sense. I automatically said 3, as I am one of 3 and have always really loved how close I am with both my brother and sister. Although, I was open to the suggestion of more or less, seeing how things went as my husband and I stumbled our way through parenthood.
Now that we have our two amazing little boys everyone continues asking 'Will you have another?', 'Would you like a girl?', or flat out 'Will you try for another to get a girl?'. The boys are also asking 'Can we have a baby for Christmas?' They are naturally curious and I have thought a lot about it. First of all, if we are able, we would love to have another but not just now. If we do try for another we would love to have a girl or a boy. We are not going to be upset or keep trying if we don't have a girl. We will be over the moon with a healthy baby - boy or girl. This is one of the reasons that we never decided to find out the gender of our boys whilst I was pregnant. We were just happy with a healthy little surprise!
I guess my mind has been on this question a bit more recently since several of our friends who previously thought they would have 3 or 4 children have decided that 2 is a good number for them. Also, a writer of another blog I read had mentioned previously that she would like many children. Now that she has both a boy and a girl she has announced she will have no more children. I guess I have just been taken by surprise with so many couples deciding on 2 children.
I feel so fortunate and grateful to have my two little men (these two guys are my everything)! I suppose I am basing my thoughts on having 3 children on my experience as being one of 3 and really enjoying that. Every family has different things to consider when planning their family but knowing quiet a few have decided to keep their family to 2 children has got me thinking...what is our magic family number? We'll just have to see what the future holds. :-)
How many children do you have or want to have? Has it changed at all?
This is a really interesting topic and one that the answer changes so many times. I have always wanted 3, like you, because I grew up close to my brother and sister. However, my husband wants to stop where we are - at 1! He was an only child and loved it. Some days, I agree with him. Ha! However, most days I want at least one more, if we are able, but I don't want to try to change his mind too much, you know what I mean? So many things to think about. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Racheal! I totally know what you mean! These can be tricky conversations but definitely worth it. :-) I am so so happy with my two but would love another. Obviously we still have to consider the practicalities of having 3 though (things like flights back home to the States from the UK are not getting any cheaper).
ReplyDeleteAlso, so glad that my husband hasn't decided he wants 5 (he is the middle child in a family of 5 children)! ;-)