I came across this article which I must definitely share with you guys as I'm very interested to know your thoughts on this. For your convenience, I have copied the excerpts from the article here:
"Families with four or more children enjoy the greatest life satisfaction, a five-year study by Perth's Edith Cowan University has found.
Bronwyn Harman, a lecturer in the School of Psychology and Social Science, asked parents from different family types about resilience, social support and self-esteem.
She found that parents with four or more children had the best ratings in each of these areas. The second-highest life-satisfaction scores, separated by just 0.25 per cent, were parents who identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer (LGBTQ).
"With large families, we think they have social support within the family," Dr Harman said. "The kids are never bored, they have someone to play with and they get independence quite early on."
Dr Harman's research revealed most big families were planned, but parents with many children described regularly being asked if they were Catholic, if they had a television and whether the children all had the same father.
The disadvantages of having a larger family, such as the expense and time pressures, were balanced out by the joy their children gave them.
"Parents accept that there is chaos in their lives but it does not negate the happiness they get from their families," Dr Harman explained."
As a parent to 3 kiddos with age range of 2 to 6.5 years old, I do agree with the article where it says kids in a large family have support and siblings to play with. I can see that in our 3 kiddos every now and then. When I'm rushing to do some paperworks for hubby's company and let our kiddos play on their own (they were in the same room as me so I can always check on them) they will just find things to play with and happily play with each other, re-enacting scenes on robots, space and princessy stuff. It is a joyful sight, really!
I personally feel that I am acceptable with the idea of myself having a bigger family (than our current 3 kiddos), I mean, I can imagine myself having another kiddo but the thought of me at this age taking on another child, I really am doubting my own capabilities and strength to do so. As it is, our 3 kiddos are quite a handful already.
What do you think?
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