Two is boring!!!

Things got so much more fun when my brother came along 10 years later

I agree, two is very small but three, (or four) would be very expensive! I love being one of four, as a sibling. I am just not so sure that I would want to be mother to four!!

I like even numbers, can't imagine having three! It has to be two or four for me!!   

heheh in that case, 4 it is!

But yeah, it seems to be more difficult to have more kids these days...... I dunno...

And why is that? We are wealthier than we have even been, yet it is more difficult for us to raise larger families. Do you think we are becoming more selfish?

I certainly feel that as parents, we feel the need to provide more for our children than our parents did, (my parents are of the baby boomer generation). But that reminds me, it is supposedly the baby boomers that are selfish, not the current generation of parents!! 

I am running out of time to have four anyway!! 

We might be wealthier, but I think that the cost of having and raising a child has gone up as well.

Plus there's the time factor. Most families have 2 working parents, and no grandparents around.

And what are you saying?! You're still young!

But having children makes you feel much older! My eldest likes to think of herself as a 'tween' and I don't like the thought of a crazy teenage girl and a child still in nappies, or barely out of them!

You could train her to help you?

That's what my mum did!

good idea!

Isn't that how they managed to have big families in the past (or even now for that matter)? Make use of all available labour
hehehe

Very true. One of my good friends is one of 13 and they each had to look out for one another and had their own chores on the farm, (in Leongatha). Can you imagine, 13 (seven girls and six boys)

And her mother looks fantastic still!

Yeah... my extended family is much like that - ie I have lots and lots of uncles and aunts, some of whom either I've never met, or can't remember

The three reasons that kids are expensive is daycare fees, advertising gimmicks and daycare fees.

I know a family of four who fit really well together. Everyone helps out, is courteous, loving etc... Of course they wind each other up but on the whole it 'works'. And it's four boys. Usually people would say it must be a chaotic family but not so.

I have to add that they are Danes and live in a society which values kids and which recognises the financial strain of having them. So. Even though they all went to day care at some stage it's heavily subsidised by the govt and employers. Mum has always been able to keep her career going without all the guilt and expense that we seem to have here in Oz. 

They tried living here a few years ago but she found the whole system very backward and unworkable. She could not understand why so many of us work really hard for a tiny bit of 'profit' at the end of the week. To her it was madness.,.. 

Have to agree with the point you made on childcare and the expense involved. I am a stay at home mum and I do not see the point in working until my children are both in school. Even then, I hate the thought of not being able to do reading duty, canteen and all the other things I get to do now. If I were working my family wouldn't eat as well, that's for sure!

I suppose the reason for working when children are small is to keep ones 'foot in the door'. I can certainly appreciate the reasoning behind that and it no doubt works out well for working mothers once their little ones get to primary school and then onto secondary. (Although half the second income then starts going on private school fees!) 

Being one of four, it was great. I always had someone to team up with. But I love to see smaller families of only two children  - they do tend to be very close and have a strong bond, they only have each other after all!

And I've seen the opposite as well....

I think it's all abt the tone the parents and other adults set.... in a sense, number of kids is irrelevant

It does seem that Australia is behind much of Europe, in addressing the needs of young families.

One big problem is; families often need two incomes in order to buy a house and pay for the ever increasing school fees.

I think we just have to do the best we can.... 

I can imagine that sometimes families with only two children - the kids have little in common and don't get along very well at all....

Family dynamics are fascinating, (well, to me at least!) 

They are, I completely agree

I think if I had four children - I probably wouldn't have the time to think about family dynamics, I'd just have to get on with the physical job of parenting, instead of thinking about the psychology behind it!

hehehehe Good point....

And I'm sure it'd all still work out really well!

I suppose the reason for working when children are small is to keep ones 'foot in the door'.

It is to keep a door to put ones foot into in our case.