How To Figure Out How Many Kids You Should Have in 5 Minutes Or Less

A collaborative post

Working out how many kids you should have is a relatively new problem. In the past, parents just kept on making children until they became infertile. But thanks to a variety of techniques, that’s no longer the case today. You really can plan quite effectively for the future.  When you ask most parents how many children they want, though, you usually get quite vague answers. Two or three, maybe? Nobody really knows. But that can be a problem. Each additional child you add to the family is an extra responsibility and something you’ll need to consider, whether you’re going down the natural or IVF route. 

Your Age

When it comes to determining how many children you want, you’ll first need to think about your age. Usually, the fertility window starts closing after 35. And by the time you reach 45, actually becoming pregnant is much less likely. How old you are, therefore, can affect how many children you can have through purely natural means. After a while, you simply run out of time. 

Furthermore, you also want to consider how old you’d like to be once they leave home. Most parents that have kids young wave goodbye to them in their forties and fifties when they go to university. But if you have kids later you might be sixty or seventy by the time they reach independence. 

The Attention Problem

Here’s another factor you’ll need to consider: the amount of time you can afford to dedicate to each child throughout the day. When you have one or two children, you can work on them all individually. But when you have six or seven, it becomes much harder to cater to each of their needs.  If you’re confident that older siblings can step in and take up the slack, then you’re probably okay. But if you have a lot of children around the same age, then it can be very demanding on your time. 

Your Relationship 

You also want to consider the issue of having more children in the context of your relationship and how you might affect it. Ultimately, you want to bring up children in a stable home. But having too many could push things in the wrong direction and you might end up in trouble. Adding each additional child adds more chaos to your existence and makes it harder to work full time. So you need to prepare yourself for that. In some cases, each day can be a challenge. And you may find that you have very little time to spend with your partner doing the things you want. 

Your Money

Extra babies also require more of your money. School books, clothes, cots, car seats and extra food aren’t free. They cost a lot of money and add an extra strain to your finances. You’ll, therefore, want to think carefully about how much you can budget for each child. Children aren’t as expensive as many parents imagine. But they can still take their toll if you’re already living paycheck to paycheck.