Rosiel

2 younger sisters (we're all about 2 years apart)
0 kids planned, although that's not set in stone...yet >:]

Sol

Way off base - generalizations never apply.

I'm one of four children. I'm the only married one. I'm the only one to have a child (as in singular).

My husband is one of five. He was the last to marry. Our family unit is the smallest of any on his side, everyone else has two to three.

ju'iblex

just a side question, i hope its not considered derailing. But to those of you who want more than 2 children, dont you ever worry about the environmental impact of such a thing, especially considering how overcrowded the world already is, and that the amount of clean resources is getting smaller?

personally, if i ever were to have children <can you say, highly unlikely?>, 2 would be the maximum. just enough to replace you and your partner.

ImGod

In our society, I don't think 3 would be bad, because it would likely even out with other couples who have less than 2. Four may be pushing it. The people who scare me are the good catholics like the guy here at work with 10 (ages 19 to 18 months).

They homeschool too, just to make it harder on themselves. They can't trust the public schools system to educate them properly and they can't afford tuition to the catholic schools.

wildernesse

I have one younger brother. Rufus has 2 older brothers.

No children yet, but I really think 3 would be the limit. My dad had 5 sibs, my mom 2--but just two children for them. All of my 1st cousins are either onlies or pairs.

My mom's joke is that my dad would tease and say he wanted a dozen children--then they had me. I think that just means that my precious daddy loves me as much as 11.5 children combined (hey, got to leave a little love for my brother!)

--tibac

pz

Yes. We really only planned to have two, but we discovered this horrible, devious, nasty little secret.

Kids between the ages of 2 and 4 are just incredibly adorable.

They're no longer totally dependent on you (no diapers!), they're cute, they've got a personality, and they're so gosh-darned wide-eyed and enthusiastic about everything. We got charmed into having just one more.

I've since decided that the most potent contraceptive in the world is to live in the same house with a teenager -- they are the perfect antithesis of a two-year-old, and will persuade you that you want nothing to do with kids ever again (nothing personal, of course).

elwoodblues

One sibling, don't want any kids. If I ever do have kids, won't be many, maybe one or two.

Loren Pechtel

No siblings, no children. However, my wife has 6 siblings.

openeyes

Regarding family size: Someone this board stated not long ago that a mother is only as happy as her most unhappy child.

I'd have to say there's some truth to that for me.

So the more kids you have, the more chance someone isn't happy.

I enjoy my adolescent kids. But ask me again in an hour to see if that's still the case.

babelfish

That's a pretty good description of the family I grew up in. I was the oldest, and had just turned 18 and was a freshman in college when my youngest brother was born.

The ten of us collectively now have 22 kids. The two youngest don't have kids (yet). The majority of us have 2 kids apiece.

Although we loved growing up in a large family, and get along very well now that we're mostly in our 30's & 40's, none of us wanted to have a huge family (although one sister came close, with 5 kids). Times were different back in the 60's, especially for Catholics. But even in our church, we were an unusually large family.