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Sometimes nothing feels stronger than the yearning to have another child. But when is the best time to think about expanding your family? Is having three children under the age of six easier than having a three- or four-year age difference between each child?
Deciding when to have another child, like most things in life, is an individual choice. Most parents factor in finances, housing, work situations and the emotional makeup of their existing family before getting pregnant or adopting another child. Some parents do, however, have strong opinions on the "perfect" spacing between children.
Parent Soup recently conducted a poll on sibling age spacing. Seventy percent of the 1,400 parents quizzed said the ideal spacing between siblings is two to four years. Only two percent said nine to 15 months, and about 8.5 percent said four years or more.
If you're deciding whether or not now is the right time to think about having another child, here are some thoughts from the moms and dads who visit Parent Soup:
"My husband and I chose a long gap between our two children because we felt that our elder child would need to be fairly independent before we had another one. We believe a baby needs a lot of one-to-one attachment, which we felt the older child needed to be ready to 'allow'."
