Reply to Tim Carney in the Post: The Ideal Number of Kids is Four (at a minimum)

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Reply to "Tim Carney in the Post: The Ideal Number of Kids is Four (at a minimum)"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Mom of five here. It is 100 percent easier to have 5 kids than 3. I found 3 the absolute hardest. Now my older kids entertain and help with the younger kids. The year my third was born was the least happy year of my life. I am now the happiest I have ever been since becoming a mom with my fifth almost turning one. I am way more relaxed and it is 100 percent true that older kids help so much. For example on Saturday mornings I will wake up and my 12 year old has changed my toddler's diaper, turned on his cartoon, and gotten him a bowl of cheerios while I lounge in bed with DH.

What I am looking forward to is parents of 2-3 kids trying to explain why those of us with 4+ don't actually know what we are talking about when we say it's easier and we are happier than you all. [/quote]

It’s definitely easier to “parent” when you’re exploiting your older kids.[/quote]

It’s funny to read this pair because my mom was the oldest of 4 and had a mom who had a really successful career, which came at the expense of my mom taking on a heavy load of raising her 3 younger siblings. I imagine it is great for the parents to have a built in babysitter so you can have a fire career and lounge in bed on Saturday mornings while your tween changes diapers.

Instead I stopped at 3 because that is the number I can parent in the manner in which I want to parent, which does not rely upon any of them acting as a caregiver to one another. I am very happy with my family and 3 feels like the perfect number for us. Maybe the mom of 5 is “happier” like she claims, but she is also smugger and downplaying the effects of a 12 year old (who was presumably in school M-F) spending their weekend morning taking care of a baby instead of meeting up with friends, heading to a soccer game, relaxing in front of their own cartoons, reading in bed, etc.[/quote]

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