A study has found that parents with four or more children are more satisfied than those with fewer offspring because they enjoy the chaos of a large family.
Grow your family to at least four children! According to a study out of Australia's Edith Cowan University, parents with the most life satisfaction (which means those who are the happiest) are those that have four or more children.
Another study confirms that parents with four or more children are the least stressed, especially when compared to parents with three kids. Those fears with the first child get less and less as you go along. Turns out, four is the magic number for less stress and more happiness.
Four is the magic number
In a study conducted by Dr Bronwyn Harman from the Edith Cowan University in Perth, it was found that parents with four or more children are the happiest parents.
Summary: Large families often capture the public's attention, from 'The Brady Bunch' to '19 Kids and Counting. ' But new research by economists offers strong evidence that children in larger families are more likely to fall behind in cognitive achievement and have behavioral and other problems.
Each child receives more parental attention and educational advantages, which generally raise her self-esteem. Children in small families, especially first and only children, tend to have higher school and personal achievement levels than do children of larger families.
Stress. A TODAYMoms.com survey of more that 7,000 mothers found that the least stressful number of kids is four, while the most stressful number is three. Scary Mommy blogger Jill Smokler told Today that she wholeheartedly agrees. “Going from one to two was an easy, breezy transition,” she said.
They found that one or two children made no difference to happiness, for men or women. However, this study found that three or more children negatively affected well-being. But there is more to life than just happiness. Often, the moments we truly savor are stressful.
An actual study revealed one to two children is the ideal number for “happiness”, but with two you don't have to deal with the aforementioned only child issues.
The different personalities and skills complement each other and add diversity to family life. Large families have the advantage of utilizing each family member's strengths in daily life. Kids come with their own personalities and skills.
The larger the families, the worse off older children did, the economists found. For every additional child introduced to a given family, the eldest sibling became more likely to have lower cognitive abilities, more behavioral issues, less education, and higher rates of criminal activity later in life.
Because of that long connection, she adds, siblings matter a lot for our personal growth and well-being. “Throughout the lifespan, people who have close sibling relationships have better mental health, better psychological health, and better social relationships, generally speaking.”
According to a Gallup poll, 4 in 10 Americans say three or more children is the ideal family size.
According to a survey conducted by British parenting website Bounty, two girls are considered the best combination for parents to have a happy and harmonious family life. In their study, they surveyed 2,116 parents who had children aged 16 and under.
According to this recent study, the most stressful number of kids to have is three. From my experience, I actually found having only one the most difficult (although I was a mom to an 'only child' for a very short time).
For a 75% chance of conceiving three children without IVF, the data suggests starting aged 31, and for a 50% chance of having three babies without any fertility treatment, you'd need to start trying at 35. With the assistance of IVF, those ages get pushed back.
Since having five or more kids is generally the cutoff point for being considered a “large” family, here are all the ways your parenting will change once you hit that pivotal plus-five milestone.
Well, according to a survey conducted by OnePoll and sponsored by Mixbook, the majority of parents think ages 2, 3, and 4 are a piece of cake compared to 8. It does make sense why 8 can be a tough age: Eight is officially a big kid.
Infants can be considered children anywhere from birth to 1 year old. Baby can be used to refer to any child from birth to age 4 years old, thus encompassing newborns, infants, and toddlers.
A plurality (41%) of moms at the end of their childbearing years now report having two kids, while just 14% have four or more children.
Family size determines what experiences and resources a child will have and receive, and those in turn influence development. They are strong influences because the experiences determined by family size are repetitious. The effects on cognition and personality are for this reason said to be overdetermined.
Family Size Results for IQ
There are two clear patterns. First, only children have lower scores than the average child in 2 child families. Second, from family sizes of 2 to 5, we see a monotonic relationship that greater family size accompanies lower average scores.
Ahmed and Jose "Oying" Rimon, director of the Gates Institute, found that in families considered small (four or fewer children), the children have a life expectancy that is three years longer than the children in larger families (five or more children) even controlling for infant mortality.