Only child or more than one sibling?

I do not understand why people insist on telling you how many children to have or how to raise them, either. It is definitely your decision, and you should not have to justify it to anyone. I think that as long as you and your husband agree and are happy with your decision, then the other people should just butt out. As long as you are able to provide for your children not only financially but also emotionally, then you should be allowed to have as many or as few children as you want and are physically able to have. Adoption is another issue. Even though I have and am still physically able to bear children, I have always wanted to adopt. My husband likes the idea, too, but right now we are not financially able to provide for any more children than the ones we already have. When we can, though, we are seriously considering adoption. Some people feel the need to voice their opinion on this subject and act like if we adopt the child will not really be ours. We do not feel that way at all. A child that we adopt would be just as much our own as any that share our DNA. As far as we are concerned, if they do not want to accept an adopted child as our own, then they do not belong in our lives, especially if they would favor one child over another.

I'm a single mom to a 6-year old boy. If I get married someday, I'd love to have more kids. My son is fine with playing by himself, but he does love being around his little cousin. :) I think it's rude for people to tell kids that they've 'got it bad'. At least that child has all the attention focused on them...that's pretty cool.

I don't think there is a issue in being an only child or being one of many children or any other option out there. As adults it is for us to decide what is best for our family and the comments from other people shouldn't matter to us. For example, I have two children, one boy and one girl. When my son was six weeks old I made the decision to have a tubal ligation because I didn't think that we would be able to fairly provide for more than two children. When I revealed this fact to a friend of mine, she wasn't very happy about it but she didn't give me a lecture about it either. We are able to fulfill all of our children's needs and then some. And our children are happy so we are happy.

Oh gosh, I went through this last year. Last year we were going through "trying" for our second child . . . it wasn't happening as soon as we wanted it to and it was getting to be heartbreaking. We probably created our own stress about it, but it sure didn't help with other people butting in with their comments about how we NEEDED to have a sibling for our first born (who was 3 at the time) and now. Who ever said we didn't want a second - and how insensitive of these people to make such a comment when they had no idea what was going on with our situation?! It was bad whether it came from family or strangers. I had aunts telling me how their sons or daughters already had 3 kids . . . or how they themselves had all their kids by age so and so. Why did I need to hear that? And I didn't understand how strangers could just give such advice when they didn't even know me. How dare people make assumptions just because I had only one child. Going through all that, I am much more sensitive to my friends who are having problems conceiving or cannot have any children at all. We are truly, truly fortunate that we have our daughter, and that our second is on the way now.

I believe that there is nothing wrong if a married couple decides to have one child. It's not on the business of other people. I think people should be more considerate and understanding especially these times that everything must be in the budget. Raising a child is costly. I mean... it's really a choice.