advice from other parents on benefits of having children close in age or not

[TeniBear]

Another with a child's perspective, only in the opposite direction. My brothers and I are all four/five years apart (I was a month off being five when G was born, and G was four-and-two-months when B was born) and we're very close. I'm closer to G than I am to B, but that's more to do with personality than our age. I love being able to remember being an only child, just as much as I love to remember helping Mum with the new babies. I actually named G myself, because Mum and Dad couldn't decide on a name themselves, and I was there when he was born (not that my parents remember it the way I do!). I might even go so far as to say that if there hadn't been that much of a gap between us, I wouldn't want to be a mum so badly. I wouldn't have known how to change a nappy from such a young age, I wouldn't be so baby-centric... Or maybe I wouldn't exaggerate so much?

Being five years older than G lets me help him in ways I couldn't if we were closer in age - I could stick up for him and act the "scary big sister" when we were little, I can give him advice on being out in the "real" world now he's out of high school... I'm incredibly protective of them both, to a point I haven't seen in siblings that are close in age. My cousins' daughters are about my age - K is a year older than me and L two years younger - and K never had that protective feeling towards L. L was just the little annoying sister who hung around for no reason. It's only now they're older that they're close. G and myself have never had that problem.

ETA: Right now, the plan is to start TTC once each child starts kinder, giving them around a 4-5 year gap, but who knows if I might end up changing my mind? Do what you and DH think is right.