At the time I always felt there were too many of us and not enough to go around. My parents separated when I was really young and we didn't have much money.
Now I think it was awesome. There was always someone to do something with and we had to learn to share and compromise and settle arguments on our own. And as adults it has been fantastic to have my sibling friends as support.
I'm one of two, same as basically everyone I know. I was racking my brain for only children or children with 2+ siblings.
That is what inspired my post. @louisa May commented about strange looks for 4 kids and how people are nowadays, but I don't remember that many families without 2 kids.
Now that I think about it, most of my friends were from bigger families. 3-6 kids for all of my closest friends in elementary school. I'm 1 of 4.
This is in the DC suburbs, even. Most of us had a SAHP. I can only think of 1 who had two parents working full-time, and her family was on the "smaller" side with 3 kids. We used to watch soaps with her nanny, lol.
I'm the youngest of 4. My parents had 4 kids in 5 years.
4 kids does not seem big to me but my mom said people used to stop her in the grocery store and make comments. One woman just flat out asked her if she was Catholic or Mormon. I mean 4 kids isn't that big a family to warrant that kind of nosiness (I mean nothing "warrants" it but 4 kids is hardly the Duggars, you know?)
My mom wanted to keep going but her doctor advised her to stop having babies. I'm kind of glad bc I like being the baby.
Post by Velar Fricative on Jun 18, 2014 6:57:10 GMT -5
I do not recall my family of 4 kids being unusual growing up. The norm I recall among my peers was 3-4 kids in their families too and I grew up in the NYC suburbs. I think it's just the continued decrease in number of kids we've been seeing since our grandparents' generation; even the 3-4 that our parents' generation had was lower than the norm for their parents' generation.
Post by charethcutestory on Jun 18, 2014 7:07:34 GMT -5
There are more than 10 in my family, I am the youngest girl. We have four so far and will likely have more. I loved growing up in a big family and my husband wishes he had a large family so we knew we wanted a large bunch of our own.
I'm one of 5. I genuinely don't know how my parents did it.
I
My husband was one of four. When our daughter was little, we were at the zoo and felt overwhelmed at chasing her around. 2:1 ratio of adults to kids. I asked my husband how his parents did it with four. He looked at me and was like "we never went anywhere."
I'm the oldest of 4. There are 15 months between me and my sister and then 15 months between her and our oldest brother. I don't know how my mom did it with 3 under 3. My parents waited 2 years before the youngest came along.
Post by runblondie26 on Jun 18, 2014 8:30:31 GMT -5
I'm one of two. My mom was 1 of 3 and says she always regrets not having a 3rd.
When I was growing up, I wasn't very good at sharing anything with my only sibling. However, as an adult, I think it would be nice to have an extra sibling.
That is what inspired my post. @louisa May commented about strange looks for 4 kids and how people are nowadays, but I don't remember that many families without 2 kids.
Now that I think about it, most of my friends were from bigger families. 3-6 kids for all of my closest friends in elementary school. I'm 1 of 4.
This is in the DC suburbs, even. Most of us had a SAHP. I can only think of 1 who had two parents working full-time, and her family was on the "smaller" side with 3 kids. We used to watch soaps with her nanny, lol.
My H's friends growing up in the DC suburbs were mostly from bigger families, too. Lots of 3 and 4 kid families. His BFF was one of 9, and his sister's BFF was one of 5 (his other sister'a BFF was an only child).
I just did a rough talley of my high school class. Of the people whose family compositions I can remember, 17 were from 2 kid families, 12 were from 3 kid families, and one was an only child. I can't think of any families with 4+ kids that I knew growing up, though several of my friends from growing up have 4 kids of their own now.
I'm one of 5. I genuinely don't know how my parents did it.
I
My husband was one of four. When our daughter was little, we were at the zoo and felt overwhelmed at chasing her around. 2:1 ratio of adults to kids. I asked my husband how his parents did it with four. He looked at me and was like "we never went anywhere."
My parents had us spaced 3-4 years apart so there were only 1 or 2 out-of-control maniacs at a time.
2 until the age of 14, when my dad remarried and I got two step brothers. But because their marriage was relatively later in my childhood and because I never lived with them, I don't really think of them as my brothers. There is also a lot of drama with one of the SBs that meant we didn't speak for a few years, so that probably also contributes to my sentiments.
I think family size drastically fell between my grandparents and parents' generations which makes sense with the timing of readily available birth control.
my grandparents each had 4 sets of kids (my mom was the oldest of 4, my dad the 3rd of 4) and they went on to have 4 kids also. my grandparents were born in the 1920's and my parents were in the first half of the boomer generation (1949 & 1950).
of my siblings - my brother and i are done w/ ONE kid each, my sister just had her first and she MIGHT have another and my other sister had 2 kids and inherited another (her h's son from a previous relationship). it doesn't look like any of us w/ have 4 kids.
I'm one of 5. I genuinely don't know how my parents did it.
I
My husband was one of four. When our daughter was little, we were at the zoo and felt overwhelmed at chasing her around. 2:1 ratio of adults to kids. I asked my husband how his parents did it with four. He looked at me and was like "we never went anywhere."
That pretty much describes my childhood, too. I'm the youngest; My older siblings all remember fun vacations, going camping, going to the zoo or kids museum, etc., but by the time I came around, my parents had stopped bothering trying to go anywhere. I don't blame them (I can't imagine corralling 5 kids!), but I know full well that I'm going to try to make up for my "boring" childhood when DD gets a little older by taking her everywhere I possibly can.