Family size- Is three the new two?

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Rose74

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It seems that the new perfect family size is three. I know several couples with three kids, the third being born either close to the second or several years after the first two. Two to four kids is really common in my area. Has anyone noticed this trend?
 
Yes, I have noticed that a few years ago.

Sadly, what I have really noticed is women with a lot of kids often there is more than one father
 
I work at an elementary school and I have noticed that the number of children in the family has increased.

I do live in Arizona where there are a lot of Mormons who are “required” to have five children, but I mean in non-Mormon and even Catholic families there are an increased number of children.
 
In my neck of the woods (Tokyo), it’s one or two. People gawk at us for having six.
 
It seems near Chicago, people have their token one child.
Sure, there are some families with more, but that’s not the norm
 
I work for a company that makes photo church directories. Catholics definitely have the larger families. But I’m seeing larger families in the Baptists too. Methodists and Presbyterians seem to be aging and don’t have many young families. The more traditional Lutherans seem to have more young families but they are almost always small families. The more liberal Lutherans have few small families and mostly older people. The Episcopalians are similar to the Lutherans. Evengelicals have larger families too.

It’s very interesting to see so many different church communities.
 
Nationally, the total fertility rate continues its steady decline. Last I checked, we had dropped below 2.0 children per woman (lifetime). Long term steady state replacement is 2.08.

If there IS a trend of more kids, it’s probably localized in fervent religious groups. Maybe the meek will inherit the earth even before Jesus returns, eh? 😉
 
Where we live, it’s two if you have a male and a female, and three if you have two of the same sex and want to try one last time for the other sex.

The families of four or more that I know tend to be Mormon, a remarriage situation (his, mine and ours), or a fourth born to a mom in her 40s with three much older children.
 
JackieMom said:
Where we live, it’s two if you have a male and a female, and three if you have two of the same sex and want to try one last time for the other sex.

The families of four or more that I know tend to be Mormon, a remarriage situation (his, mine and ours), or a fourth born to a mom in her 40s with three much older children.
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Yes, in San Diego when I was growing up, there were lots of families with three girls, three boys, brother/sister combo or that later in life surprise baby. We had three families on our street with 5 kids, but all the Dads in those families were doctors and could afford it. I have one of each and most people assume we are done. Maybe. Maybe not. I like the idea of one more, but a c-section and a pregnancy at 39. Ugh.
 
In my dad’s fam, of the 10 who had kids, two is the norm, with three having three each, one having five (between 2 marriages), and one having 6; the remaining 5 just had two each. My sister recently ask my parents why they had 3 kids and they said it just happened like that. A lot of my peers only have one sibling so I am not sure if it just depends on who you know or if it is more of a generational thing.
 
4-5 is VERY common here… but we are deep south, conservative, and have a large, devout, Mormon and Catholic presence.
 
manualman said:
Nationally, the total fertility rate continues its steady decline. Last I checked, we had dropped below 2.0 children per woman (lifetime). Long term steady state replacement is 2.08.

If there IS a trend of more kids, it’s probably localized in fervent religious groups. Maybe the meek will inherit the earth even before Jesus returns, eh? 😉
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Perhaps the decline is due to the fact that a lot more women have 0 kids. It seems maybe there is more of an all or nothing trend. Just my thoughts
 
Anglewannabe said:
Perhaps the decline is due to the fact that a lot more women have 0 kids. It seems maybe there is more of an all or nothing trend. Just my thoughts
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My thoughts as well! 👍

One child is rare in my group - 2 to 4 or none seem to be the trend. Still considered “large” if 5 or more … but I consider my six to be “average” - especially since because of the age spread we’re rarely all together except for family gatherings. 🤷
 
Around here it is still that 2 is 2. 😉 I would say that the majority of families here have 2 children.

I see a few trends in families - the more devout couples (whatever religion Christian, Muslim, Hindi, etc.) often have larger families. We know quite a few families with 4 or more.

In general the single moms around here just have one. I do not persoanlly know any never married women with more than one. I do know divorced single moms with 2 or more.

The upwordly mobile and “worldly” couples have only one (perfect) child, or potentially two if the mom wanted the other sex.

We have two and because it is one of each everyone assumes we “planned” it. In actual fact we wanted more but that was not to be. 😦
 
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