The Only Child Question

There was an article in the New York Times the other day about only children. This issue has come up frequently at work recently because my group (five people) consists exclusively of only children. It was the joke in the office that you had to be an only child to work with us. This changed a month or so ago when we *gasp* hired a girl with a brother. I looked around the office the other day at coworkers that had children and took a quick poll: five of my seven co-workers have only one child. That’s unbelievable! That’s 70%! My two coworkers with multiple children have two each.

It’s clear that the number of children that women in the United States, Japan, and most of Europe has been declining steadily: “Over all, the census shows, [American] women approaching the end of their childbearing years in 2004 had an average of 1.9 children, compared with 3.1 for their 1976 counterparts.”

So here’s a question for all of you out there that are having children, had children, or are contemplating children farther down the road: What is your “ideal” number of children?

1?

2?
3?
4?

Perhaps a dog instead?More importantly, what factors do you take into consideration when having children? Economics? Population Growth? Environment? Family Size Dynamics?

Of my only child coworkers, one is currently having his first child, one wants three, and the remaining two don’t want any (both are in their early 30s).

Here is a link to the NY Times article: here.