My sister and I are 7 years apart and I love it. I plan to have my babies be 5-7 years apart and I only want one more!
I think the age difference is great because I had a good long time as an only child and when my sister was born I was pretty excited and knew what was coming and was happy to help out. I was also independent enough that my mom and sister got to really bond while I would stay at my grandparents or while I was in school. We were also never in school together…once she was in elementary I had moved on to middle, ect…this was good cause we were never compared to each other.
Also, we couldn’t be closer. She’s my best friend. And since she isn’t even close to being ready for kids she is really close with my daughter!
My sister and I are a year and a half apart. I liked growing up close to her, although there was always a bit of sibling rivalry. Today, I feel very close to her even when we live very far apart. I have a step-sister 9 years older than me and a half brother 9 years younger than me, and unfortunately, I never felt as close to them as I do my sister.
As for me, I like the idea of having children closer in age. I might start to feel impatient and not be able to wait 3, 4, 5 years for a second child! I’m almost 30 and my husband and I want to start trying this year. We would like at least 3, and I feel that I want to have all of our children in my 30’s rather than my 40’s. But, maybe I won’t feel the same way once we have our first child.
I don’t think age difference matters that much. i’m one of 10 kids and we are all far apart in age. Our ages range from 16- 2 months old ( some of my siblings were adopted) and we all love eachother and it doesn’t matter what our ages are. we’re family. my best friend [name]Lynsie[/name] is 15 and her sister Vanyssa is 26 and her litttle sister Elyna is 2, so age doesn’t really matter.
I seem to be in the minority here, I am the oldest of four kids and we are each spaced nearly exactly two years apart, girl boy girl boy and I would love to have this kind of spacing with my own kids as we are all so close and are at similar stages in our lives. I think that if you wait much longer than 2 years before you have a second baby the child would we so used to being an only child and not like getting less attention when the bub arrives. When gaps are 4-5 years between each child its a different kind of relationship, I know a 5.5 year old girl who has a 16 month old brother and although she is seems to be very grateful to finally have a sibling, she is in school wheras he isnt and they don’t play with each other as say a 5 and 3 yr old would. I guess when the boy gets older they will become closer though.
In the end it comes down to what you feel you would be able to cope with best, lost of people feel like two or more little ones would be too difficult whereas some love it!
My brother and I are seven years apart. We did not get a long until he was in [name]Jr[/name]. high. We aren’t close, persay, but we get a long 10x better now. My step-children have 16 months in between them. They are mistaken for twins a lot. For the most part, they are very close to each other. Of course, there has been some jealousy when my stepson began school and his sister got to do/get things when he was in school. They have a half-sister on their mom’s side and there is about 4/3 years between them. With my daughter, they have 6/5 years between them. I am expecting in [name]July[/name]. My daughters will have about 17 months in between them. I will admit, I am worried about taking care of a toddler and a newborn at the same time.
I think 4 years is a good age difference financial wise. You don’t risk overlap in paying for two kids to go to college in the same year. My ideal would be 4.
However, I would like twins, but if that does not happen, then 4 years apart.
I’m the youngest of four. My oldest sister and I are 10 years apart. My second oldest sister and I are 8 years apart. My brother and I are 6 years apart. It’s never been a problem; we are all very close. That said, my cousins and I are very close too because we’re similar ages.
I have 3 children and there’s 20 months between the first two and exactly 2 years between the middle and last. I’m ttc a 4th and there will be around 2.5 years between the last one and another if I’m successful.
I preferred them closer together. They play well together, always have a companion, will be close, but not too close in school age-wise. They were also too young to really be jealous of the newcomer.
I’ve also had a steady stream of pregnancy, breast feeding, sleepless nights and nappy changing, so that going to the next baby doesn’t seem like a big adjustment.
We left having babies until our mid-30s, so maybe if we had been younger we would have spaced them out more, but I doubt it, I think I would have just had more kids.
I am the oldest of 3 siblings. There is a year between me and my brother and 4 years between me and my sister. We are all close.
My cousins i think are 2 years apart and just dont get on. Older sister, younger brother. However, he has hemophilia(sp?) and i think she alway felt her parents always paid more attention to him.
I dont think it matters how many years apart you are, we all have different personalities
Ideally i think around 3 years would be my ideal, even planning these things doesnt guarantee
I had always intended to have a few years in between, but sometimes it just happens. At this rate it will be about 16 months between my daughter and this baby.
2-3 years. My reasons are because I will probably be 28 when I have my first (newly 28) and I’d like to have my kids before I am too well into my 30s! I don’t know if I want multiples yet, I want to have one child first and see how I feel. My brother and I are 19months apart and it was fine. My DH and his brother are almost 5 years apart and he feels it is too much of a gap. They were close enough in age to argue but never really be really good friends because growing up they were always at different stages in their lives. Now that they are both in their 20s it’s a lot better but it left an impact.
4-5 years between #1 and #2, because the older one will be in school and have a life outside of home meaning they will be less jealous of the new baby. Also, the older one could help around the house and with the baby while understanding the whole process. I would like 2-3 kids, so if I became pregnant after the 2nd one, I would like at least a three year gap. Not sure why I would like the younger ones closer than the first two. I just think it would be easier on the firstborn. I have read a lot about birth order and its affect on children’s development. Experts agree that a 4-5 year gap is great.
I’d hope to have my 1st kid when I’m 28 (if I find a man by then) 2nd kid 3 years later and 3rd(maybe) 3-4 after that.
7 years at most between the 1st and last and hopefully have all my kids before 36.
#1 will be starting preschool once #2 starts moving around
and if there is #3, #1 will be in school F/T and #2 will be in preschool once #3 is born or starting to move around.
My first two are 21 months apart and the next one will be 26 months after that. I love that they are friends and play well together, but it is more work all at once to have them so close. I prefer having them closer together, but it’s not for everyone (just like waiting 5 years wouldn’t be ideal for every family).
In my head I’ve always wanted my first two children soon after each other, I’m thinking 18 months apart maybe, but obviously that would depend on finances and how well I’d adapted to life with the first child. In an ideal world I want 5 children, so I’m by the time I have all my children there ages will be something roughly like this; newborn, 2, 5, 7, 8/9. So all 5 children within 9 years and I hope to be 25/26 years old when I have my first child and be done by the time I am 34/35 years old but obviously this is all wishful thinking.
I think 2-3 years is a terrific spacing. Less than 2 years makes me nervous for many reasons, but I know many make it work very well and even prefer it. The reasons I prefer 2+ years is 1. the body needs time to heal from a prior pregnancy 2. baby #1 is more independent at 2 yrs old…much much more so than 16 or so months. 3. I prefer to nurse until at least 18 months-2 yrs and a new pregnancy would affect your supply 4. at 2-3 years, baby #1 can understand a new baby and even big your “little helper” at times. 5. you have a chance not to have 2 in diapers!
My first two are 28 months apart. We knew we wanted more children so we didn’t prevent at all after her birth. We didn’t conceive again until she was 3 and lost that pregnancy. The next pregnancy was not until she was 5 1/2! So when our twins were born, our daughters were 8 1/2 and 6. I’ve thanked God many times for this unexpected blessing of “strange” child-spacing! (which was not how I pictured it or wanted it) We love having our “big girls” and “little girls” now. Our big girls are best friends by the way. They have different personalities, but get along great.
[name]One[/name] thing I’ve learned in child spacing is that there is no perfect or ideal number. We have our preferences and ideas of what is good/bad, but life happens! It’s sorta like “when is the best time to have a child” to me. If you desire to be a parent or add to your famly- the best time is now! Go ahead and try and be open to the possibilities. You might get exactly how you picture it or it might be completely different and interesting just the same (like having my “big kids” and "little kids).
I would really like my children to be very close in age. Part of my reasoning, though, is that I would like to have four-six children, and if you put huge age gaps in there, you will end up raising teenagers and infants at the same time. While this can easily (and successfully) be done, I see it as a huge challenge because you are trying to keep up with the social life of adolescents while also maintaining a schedule lifestyle for a baby. Personally, I prefer to have mine really close (a year between the first two, two years between [name]Baby[/name] 2 and [name]Baby[/name] 3, and a year between [name]Baby[/name] 3 and [name]Baby[/name] 4. I would probably have two year age gaps if I went on to have 5 and 6:)
My brother and I are just over four years apart. We get along well and love one another, but I sometimes wish we were either closer or further away. If we were closer, we would have more in common and be at the same point in life (relatively). If we were further away, I think it would be more of a parenting-sibling relationship, which is sometimes fun:)
20 months - 28 months. close must not exhaustively so.
I love the fact that my brother and I who is 25 months younger than me seem basically the same age now, we are as close as anything - because we go through similar things and have overlapping friends. but i realise I am very lucky to have this relationship.
I had no idea that so many people put such large age gaps between kids! My two boys are 21 months apart and I think it’s perfect. The oldest one potty trained pretty soon after the younger one was born, so I didn’t have two kids in diapers for very long. I couldn’t imagine waiting until I was all done with diapers and having a child sleeping through the night and finally feeling normal again and then deciding to start all over. We love the idea of having them close together and going through each stage with them at similar ages. Our initial plan was to have a third 21 months after the second, but then we started to question whether we wanted more or not. We’ve finally decided that we will have the third and we are hoping that there is no more than a 2.5 year age gap between the youngest two. Anything more than that would seem like too large an age gap…
