Today my wife told me that we would have to have two more children if we had any more at all. Her reasoning is that by the time a second child is born, assuming she got pregnant today, Devin will be five-ish and the new baby would need someone closer to his/her age to play with. Of course she was kidding (I hope), but I’m not sure how far off she was with her nausea-inducing joke. A few years difference in age doesn’t mean much for adult relationships, however for children those same years can mean a lot.
Nevertheless, at this point I’m pretty certain that my house will remain a sibling-free zone. I think I can live with that.
My brother and I are five years apart and I think it was a perfect age. We were close enough that we played together alot when I was 10 and he was five but then when we got older, we were able to establish our own identities without drawing much comparison. I think there are studies that also suggest five years is the optimal distance between siblings.
Of course, this is for all you weird folks who insist on having your babies one at a time.
we decided to “quit while we were ahead” since we already had one good one! people give us lots of crap, though. one lady even told us how she was “pro-sibling” and we were “depriving” our child of his natural rights! but you have to do what feels right for your family, not for anyone else’s.
My own boys are 2 1/2 years apart and although it’s nice that they can entertain each other, I do see them fighting over the same toys and vying for my attention a whole lot. If they were further apart, maybe that wouldn’t happen, but they probably wouldn’t play together as much either. It makes me think that no matter if you only have one child, have your kids close together, or space them apart, there’s always going to be pros and cons to live with. I’m getting harrassed by my kids for a baby sister. I told them they could have another fish instead.
My uncle and his wife purposely had their children five years apart. Their reasoning was it would give them time to recuperate and be ready for the next go-round of diapers, late night milk bottles and teething. Only issue was the second time they had twins. ( I am not trying to scare you man, but they did quite well )
Remember you spoke of grandmothers going on vacations with you and your wife in an early blog entry? This is the perfect time to leave the kids with them, then you and the wife head off to silent bliss any where kids are not HOLLERING!…*smile*
Devin needs a brother or sister and five years is not far apart.
That sounds like my wife. Before we had our daughter, she had theories about how many kids to have and when–not only because they’d need another close in age to play with, but also because she thought that there shouldn’t be three because (based on her own youngest brother) the third is always weird. Like you though, we’re probably stopping with one.
My sis and I are five years apart. Seemed like light years as kids, but not a big deal now that we are adults. Go for two more! The more the merrier 🙂
Like you have a say in the matter….ha…ha…ha.
My husband is happy to have how ever many more- his only rule is they all need to be up out of the house by the time we’re still within a reasonable age for retirement (i.e. not 60 years old with kids in high school).
I think you need to have at least 4 or 5 more- that way you could start your own basketball squad, the Devin Devils. They could be like the Harlem Globetrotters just much much smaller and from Brooklyn.
Don’t be afraid of having three. It’s a good number. Sure, you get two-against-one sometimes, but more often it’s kind of like the Battle Royale from the old WWF days. There — is that convincing enough?
Have another if you can. Children are so worth the effort it takes. Adult children are terrific to have because there could be grandchildren and let me tell you how wonderful they are — you just cannot believe it!
We have one now and I always say that unless we get blesses (cough cursed) with twins, one more is enough. Mine is only 6 months but I still need at least another 3 years to recuperate.
What ever happened to cousins and neighborhood kids?
I had a brother, 3.5 years younger than me and we didn’t play too much because we had a whol bunch of other neighborhood kids to play with.
I understand your wifes rationale. I feel for my baby since there is 8 years difference between him and the next child. We’ll just have to find him plenty of play mates. LOL
We’ll have two (in Oct) that will be 3 1/2 years apart. We’d love a third, but we started late. And a third at our age? Not a chance.