When we had our first child, we were delighted to start our little family that we always wanted. In our plans, we always knew we will be only having two children. We did not want our daughter to grow up without a sibling, and be ‘alone.’ Both my husband I come from big families, I have four brothers and sisters and he has three brothers. So we wanted to have two kids (at least).
Now that we have our two little girls, we often get asked: ‘are you trying for a boy’?
No, we are not. Not a boy, not a girl or nothing. Here is why we will only be having two children and why it feels right for us. To also set the scene each family’s size is their own business, this is only my view on our family.
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7 Reasons Why I am Pretty Certain We Are Only Having Two Children
No middle child issues
We will have a youngest and eldest, that is it. No middle child issues. I don’t know if birth order has that much effect on a child’s life, but still it is not an issue for us. Each child will have her crown of glory, one as the eldest and one as the ‘baby’ of the family.
[bctt tweet=”We will only be having two children, the balance feels just right for us. ” username=”cherralle_”]
Divide and conquer
When we are home or going out, we divide and conquer, or ‘each one takes one.‘ I take a child, and my husband takes a child, and we are sorted. With three, what must happen? We have a ‘delicate’ balance at this point, and it is getting better the older they are getting.
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Money: School fees and they do need to eat
Raising children is an expensive exercise. With the rising cost of living and the challenges in our education system in SA, we are okay with only having two children. We aim to live as responsibly as we can, and we manage. We are both hard working parents and we want to be able to enjoy our lifestyle.
The car situation
The car only takes two car seats, so I don’t know what must happen with a third child. I do not see us getting a bigger car to accommodate three children. I am sure families do manage fine, but we are okay with only having two children.
Family of four just feels right
With four, we feel very balanced out. It can be two against two in any family scenario. My husband will probably say it’s not balanced as its three girls and him!
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The needs of our children are becoming similar
Ava is turning one and Caitlyn is four years old. We are noticing now that things are becoming a bit easier as our routines as a family settles in. What I mean by this is that the chaos is calming down, maybe a different type of chaos is to come?
They both go to sleep now within one hour of each other and wake up at roughly the same time. They share a room (when Caitlyn is not in our bed 🙂 ), and Ava is enjoying more ‘regular’ food now. To reach this point and to revert to caring for an infant, I cannot see that in the cards right now.
Happy and sad, that babyhood is almost done for us!
Our little one is turning one in a less than a month.
That is the last of babyhood for us. Ava is such a cuddly and lovable baby, and it will be our last experience of having a baby. I am also looking forward to us being able to do different things as the girls are growing up. We will be done with nappies, sleep routines, carrying a baby bag around, all that jazz.
Right now, I am very comfortable and happy with our family of four. I feel that things are finally starting to settle down in our home as the girls are growing older. This is why we are only have two children!
What about you? Are you done having children or are you planning to grow your brood 🙂