Ok... I'm determined NOT to put you off having a third! Because I love my third little one and he really does make our family feel complete... I think I would have gone crazy if I couldn't have had just "one more". Now, to answer your question: honestly, yes, having had a third has kinda isolated us even more... mainly because there's an unspoken rule that you don't ask another family with kids to look after your kids if you have more than they do. Well that's how it seems to me. I could be wrong about this. So we basically don't leave our kids with anyone anymore. A sitter might come to us... but we pay. We don't have my mum to help out... she lives interstate. Oh and her reaction to us having a third was "OMG you are breeding like rabbits".... yep, nice... but she has never been supportive of anything so why start then? But you are miles ahead of our dismal situation so i'd say go for it!!! My youngest is nearly 3 and time really has flown... before i know it he will be past the super challenging phase and maybe I'll feel ok about leaving them all with other people... it's mainly hard to do this when your children are very young... once they can communicate then people seem happier to take them on for you.

Also, on the other side the coin... virtually no one has asked me to look after their children since I have had my third. I guess they assume I am already over burdened? Maybe they are right... but like I said, we don't have much of a village anyhow. It's kind of a catch-22 situation: you need to be able to particiapte in a village to have a village but by the time you have several children it gets too hard to participate... I think in an ideal world people really should participate in their village BEFORE they need it.... like when they are still single and child-free.... but how many single people want to be stuck at home babysitting when there are "people to meet, places to see" etc. THAT'S the problem... we need our villages when it's too late to create one. Just my experience. My single friends rarely have looked after my children... and it's not as if we haven't helped them out when they needed it... it's just that on the whole they are too "busy" to care for my kids... they are too busy trying to find the right partner so that they can have kids of their own I guess... and maybe THEN they too will quietly wonder where their village is?