I've had experience having an only child for 9 years... then being a mother of two more in quicker succession... so now I have 3. We always knew that we'd have more than just a single child but I needed to do a few more things like return to study before i was ready to have more. Now having said that I can say that whether you wait or have them close will bring their own list of pros and cons in about an equal ratio. At the end of the day you do what you intuitively feel is right. Logic really doesn't play that much of a role when it comes to having children i've found. I know that my eldest child has certainly benefited from having her younger brothers around. She might not always think so... but it's teaching her great lessons in tolerance that you just don't get if you just 'socialise' an only child. At 3am my now teenage DD is learning that whether she likes it or not if her brothers are sick then her sleep will most likely be disturbed as they cry in the room next door. She knows that try as you might she has no other choice than to tolerate her little brothers noise as they hoon around on their toy cars when she is trying to watch the TV. On the other side of the coin it's one of the best things for me to see, as their mum, them all getting along and making family movies (this is my DD's speciality... she's made so many movies of the boys that Dh and I just never would have gotten around to) and watching her showing the boys and hearing them all laughing hysterically! I know the age gaps are big now (13yo, 4yo, 2yo) but my DH has a 10/12/15year age gap with his older brothers but these days you wouldn't know it... they all get along great mates. Ages gaps do have a way of growing smaller as the people involved get older... just speaking from experience.