I have always wanted 4 kids, 2 of ea sex.

After I had no.3 my DH said no more, he was happy, and I almost reconciled myself to that. I even sold my maternity clothes (how clever!) Then I reaised the topic with him. At the moment I am not working and I have whats called family leave of 7 yrs, I have used 1 yr so far. This is not pd leave, but it means my permanent teaching position will be held for that period of time while I have my family. Most principals will then allow 1 extra yr of leave without pay and that is what I am aiming for. That means I can stay home for full time work until 2010, returning in 2011. I worked out that if I had our 4th baby this yr I could then stay home for it's prep/1st yr of school and return to full time work the following yr. And when DH and I talked he said "No! I dont want any more,!" then "Well maybe". So the deficision was that we would have the 4th child now as I wanted to be finished by the time I was 30.

And here we are, after buying the 7 seater van. Financially we should be fine, luckinly if things go quiet for my self employed DH I can do emergency/relief teaching, which pays great and he can stay home and look after the kids. We also have a tiny mortgage compared to most people, we brought just before the boom in 1997, and that has meant we are coping financially on 1 wage.

I think if I had returned to full time work we would not have had the 4th child. I worked full time through the first 2 kids and it was really tough, I couldn't do it with 3 or 4 though, not until they are at school.

I do get tired of extended family members whinging about how many kids we have though, you would think they had to raise them and pay for them the way they complain. It's strange! Although the MIL did say "2 is enough!" Which was interesting since she had 3 herself and would have had 4 if not for the 3rd needing medical attenttion for most of her life.

To each his own, whether you have one or more is not relevent really, just so long as you have made the decision which suits you and makes you happy.
Cheers Michelle