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I'm an only child, and my husband has one older brother. We have 2 kids (and we're done).

My DH is an only and I have an older sister by 3 years that I am not close with at all & never have been. DH would prefer to have two but is ok with one and is leaving the decision up to me. He didn't mind being an only and I have a couple friends who also didn't mind being only's. The decision to have more then one will be based more on the financial aspect rather then giving our son a sibling.

Dh is an only and has always wanted a big family. I have one younger brother who I'm very close to and always wished we had another sibling! Weve always been a two maybe three family.

We just had our second a few days ago, were shelving the talk about maybe #3 until six months to a year later when we're out of the newborn high and have settled into our life as a fam of four!

I am an only child, and we plan on having at least 2 children. I want my kids to have a sibling because I have always wished that I had one (my parents struggled with infertility). DH is 1 of 3, and he also wants 2 children. He is the middle child so he doesn't like the idea of having 3.

We will see how we feel after we have our first because I know our plans may change. I can definitely see the benefits of having just 1 child.

I'm an only by my mom. My half siblings are 14+ years younger than me, and I never lived with them, so I consider myself an only child. I always assumed I wanted more than one because of that, but recently I realized that I really don't (for a lot of reasons unrelated to how many siblings I had). I wanted a sibling growing up, but I was actually very happy as an only. Having my siblings definitely damaged my relationship with my dad and stepmom.

DH has a twin sister and two younger brothers, and had two stepbrothers for a lot of his childhood, and he feels very strongly about not having a bunch of kids. Two would be his absolute max, and he's thrilled that I decided I only want one.

DH is an only child. He said he didn't mind it growing up and it worked well for his personality type. However, as an adult, he wishes he had a sibling. A lot of it deals with the same things that @Mrs. Microscope: mentioned. He knows that it's going to seriously affect him when his parents pass away because he's very close to them. He won't have anyone to share that with (I'm the closest he'll have since we've been together since high school and they're truly another set of parents for me). For that reason, he feels strongly about having more than one.

I have one younger sister and we are super close, so I think watching that relationship also made him want to give our children siblings.

I'm an only child, and while I don't have any problems with being an only, I feel like there are benefits of having a sibling, assuming you get along with them.

DH has two brothers, and they are always texting and communicating with each other. DH considers them his best friends, and they have a lot of fun when they are together. It seems like with a sibling, you have a friend for life, and you have someone you can count on to be there for you. I don't have any friends that I have been super close to my entire life. Instead, I have friends I am close to, and then they move away or we grow apart, so every few years it seems like I'm in a different social circle. It would be nice to have someone who is constantly in my life and who is close to my age (unlike a parent or aunt/uncle).

With that being said, we have decided we want two children. I have a son and will have another son very soon! I'm excited for the relationship they will have.

@Chuckles: I can't speak to being an only, but I am the 3rd of 5 kids in my family and I loved being in a big family. But we are only planning to have two kids. While I really appreciate having so many siblings and, as you said, friends for life, I can't imagine raising so many nor the financial impact. So 2 is it for us- our kids will have a sibling but not four of them.

I do feel like anecdotally, the only children I know do seem to be more likely to only want one child of their own.

@Chuckles: My son is an only (I am the oldest of 3, husband is the oldest of 4).

We are both very orderly and I will tell you that I can not handle chaos at all. Like if you drop me into my son's preschool class, I seriously start to sweat and get all nervous. I love my son, but parenting him has not been an easy road at all and I want to be the best person I can be for everyone in my family. I think part of the scenario for us is that my son was born when I was 35. I just don' have the patience I did had we begun 10 years before.

My husband had a lot of responsibility for his siblings. He grew up abroad and they go home for lunch. He was in charge of getting the kids lunch, for example, at home. He is also 12 years older than the youngest and he basically raised her. She adores him and it is wonderful to see them together now as adults, but my husband specifically didn't want our child to have to do all that he did. He loves his family, but he felt it was a large burden to be placed on a child.

And one last thing, I asked my son if he wanted a brother or sister and he said no, he liked our family how it is, he's 4.5 years old. So they know, lol.

I am the only child of my dad, I have half brother 10 years older. I really enjoyed the relationship with my parents and I have a much closer relationship with my parents than DH (he was one of 3). He is not close to his brothers so I don't buy into having a sibling means you are giving your child a friend. I know tons of siblings that are not close or estranged.

My husband is a only and thought that our son should be an only. I'm the oldest of 4 and wanted 2 kids. We have two kids now and are done.

I am the oldest of 3 and my DH has an older half brother who is 10 years older (so he essentially grew up as an only child). DH would love to have like 5 kids....we are expecting #2 any day now and 3 is my max!!!

I am an only, my dh is one out of 3. I'm pregnant with our 3rd. I'd have more truthfully if I were richer and younger but 3 is it most likely

I consider myself an only because I'm my mother's only child and she was my primary caregiver throughout my childhood. I do have a half brother through my dad who is 8 years younger, and two step siblings through my dad that I got as an adult. While I get along with all my siblings, I'm not really close to any of them.

My husband has an identical twin who he's very close to and an older brother that he's closeish to.

I'm currently pregnant and 95% sure I'm done after this one. I think there were lots of benefits of being an only, both for myself and for my mother. There were occasionally times, as a small kid, that I wanted a sibling, but I also wanted a pony and I managed to survive without either (given the choice, I probably would have chosen the pony).

I also find it interesting that some people worry about dealing with the death of a parent as an only child. My mother got uterine cancer when I was 25 and I moved home and cared for her until her death, and then I handled her estate. Personally, I think it was so much simpler and easier because I was an only. We had a good support system of family and friends that helped out while she was sick. And the estate was easier to deal with because there was only one heir (me). I'm currently the executrix of my paternal grandmother's estate because I've already been through the process and she thinks I'll handle it better than my dad or uncle and, I have to say, it's more of a pain in the ass, because we have to talk about how to divide things and be fair and all of that stuff. Estates can get tricky when you've got multiple siblings - my husband's mother and her sisters still don't speak to their oldest sister because of arguments they had over the estate when their mother died.

My husband would probably be happy to have another, but we agreed on one before marriage, and he's okay with that. If things change and I decide I want another, I'm sure he'd be on board, but I just don't see that happening. But crazier things have happened, so we'll just see. I'm going to get a Mirena or Skyla after this baby is born so we have a few years to be really sure we're one and done before he gets snipped.

@Chuckles: honestly I was never sad I didn't have a sibling. I have an amazing relationship with my parents that would have never been possible with lots of siblings.

@Chuckles: I think when you have only 1 there is still the chance for them to have a close sibling-like relationship in their lives. My husband has been best friends with his best friend for 30 years. They talk nearly every day, and if she and her family lived closer, we would be doing things together all the time. They have a closer relationship than many siblings – certainly closer than me and my brother. He also is still close friends with a guy he went to second grade with – they talk weekly. So, they don’t have a sibling blood relationship, but it’s definity a sibling-like relationship.

I think you should do whatever feels right for your family, but just wanted to throw that out there.

@JenGirl: interesting you mentioned death of a parent. I can totally see your point with it being easier with one heir but in my case it wasn't that simple and on top of that I dealt with a lot of emotional upheaval I felt losing my father even though we weren't that close and he lived in another country on the time of his death. I felt very aline in the world truthfully when he passed though my mother lives less than 5 minutes away. In all honesty I felt like an orphan momentarily, the isolation and liss without someone else to share it with. Also knowing, as always, once my mom was gone there would be no link to my childhood anymore, that no one else in the world would share those memories with as well as know what it was like to be my parents child. My father's death is what catapulted me back into wanting a larger family again after such a rough time with my son's first year. I do think his death made me see once again all the reasons I hated being an only growing up