How many children do you want?

[Bloodeagle]

I have 3 kids with 2 different mothers and another baby on the way.
Four children will be enough for me. Funny thing is that my oldest will be 20 when the baby is born.

[jerney]

I voted 3 - 4. I have 3 children, two sons and a daughter, and they are very precious to me.

In what order did you have them? I know in reality you can't control things, but if I could choose, I'd really, really prefer to have a boy first

[Alison]

The oldest is my daughter, then the sons. I didn't think about what gender I would have prefered first. It was just so exciting being pregnant and bonding with that baby before she was born, as it was with the other two. We're a very close family, and the siblings adore each other.

[Brynhild]

To be honest, three is a somewhat harder number to deal with, but it does depend on how closely you have them, especially when the arguments kick in. I have two boys and a girl in the middle. I wanted a boy first but it wouldn't have mattered how it came about. I had my brood within five years, the eldest two being 22 months apart, with the middle and third child three years apart. It would've been closer, if it weren't for a miscarriage between the second and third.

I would've liked four but my back was giving out with each birth and I feared the worst in that department, as my tailbone was misaligned. I wouldn't have it any other way now, despite the earlier difficulties with juggling it all and the youngest being autistic - who is a great kid and getting better by the day. They're all great kids and I love them with my every being.

[Alison]

Aww, Brynhild. You're awesome. Hugs.

[Vasconcelos]

I'm hoping for 2, perferably 3, hopefully not all of the same gender. I think it will depend on how wealthy we'll be in the future, I need them to have the best education possible, I suppose growing up one child is already pretty hard on family budget

[whirlwind]

Hmmmm...I don't want to dismiss this, but I think there is a lot more to the story than this. The same crowd that says that kind of thing also strikes me as the same people who were saying absorbing classical music while in the womb and during infancy made kids into geniuses. Now that's been almost utterly discredited. I think much of a child's potential is laced within their DNA. And many psychologists think so too. Google "Hans Eysenck," for example. He was one of the most famous in his day.

I don't think I expressed myself adequately.
First off, I'm a psychology major, and one of the rigors of that at my uni is that we are made to take several child/developmental psychology courses [didn't think it would interest me that much but it's actually VERY interesting]. I am currently taking a course in childhood psychopathology, and my professor and his wife had triplets.
As we were going over the section on learning disabilities, particularly communication disorders, we were informed that often times multiples develop comm. d's as a result of having other babies to communicate with all the time, which can tend to delay the progress they make in learning to speak properly.
It's not a grave threat or anything, 99% of the time it does no harm whatsoever and in fact there are other benefits to being a multiple.
But I tend to notice that only children are a bit more precocious, as they have to try and keep up with the adults in their family rather than siblings of a similar age. Certainly this isn't the rule, it's just an observation I've made. I'm an only child in effect, even though I have a half brother, because we were raised essentially in different households.
My cousin and I are like brother and sister as well, but again, we were raised for the most part in separate households. He and my brother have no other siblings, and they are both way ahead of their age in intellect and self-expression. They are also very self-assured and not at all concerned with "fitting in."
There isn't necessarily a causal relationship between being an only child and being bright/expressive, but it's just an observation I've made. I'm sure, however, that since it's pretty typical for our species to have more than one offspring, the more natural thing is for humans to grow up having siblings and so there are probably more benefits to it than drawbacks.
Personally, having one child only feels comfortable to me because it's even a leap for me to imagine having such a deeply intimate relationship [mother-child]. The idea of spreading that love and closeness to multiple children entirely dependent on me is intimidating :/

[Fortis in Arduis]

I want an abortion.

[Heretik]

My woman said 3 or 5. I don't know what's wrong with 4?

[Pallantides]

4+