Should You Have Large Age Gaps Between Your Kids?

So you’ve decided to have another baby? Yay and huge congratulations! But you are probably now mulling over whether to just bite the bullet and go for it, or to wait until they are older with a bigger age gap between them. Tricky stuff really, especially since both have their own advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages Of Having A Big Age Gap Between Your Kids When we’re talking about large age gaps between siblings, we are talking about three years or more. That’s when you can really notice and appreciate the age space between them. Some of the good points of having this age gap include:

• You and your partner are going to have time to catch up on all that sleep you have missed out on, while you are biding your time until you bring a baby into your home again.

• Your children are going to be working at different developmental ages, meaning that you can work with both of them and nobody is going to miss out on anything.

• Toys, clothes and all the other baby stuff, including our Baby Shusher and Sleepytots, can be reused! Yay for saving money!

• You will be able to have the time to dedicate to all of your kids. While your eldest is at school or kindergarten, you can spend time just chilling and bonding with your new little one. Then vice versa; when your youngest is taking all those long naps, you can play with your older kids.

• Siblings with larger age gaps tend to fight less, so you’ll not be having to spend time breaking up all those fights over who had which toy first!

• You are spreading out the pain, so to speak, of sleepless nights, teething and nappy changes.

• What your kids need and want will be different. So when doing such as on family outings, you and your partner may just have split up to do different things with each child. Which kind of bums out on the point of having a family outing in the first place.

• Your children may have trouble bonding with each other as they may just not have a lot in common with each other.

• Playing together can be tricky as your eldest can be building with blocks or drawing with felts, while your youngest just wants to get their hands on their toys to eat them!

• Looking towards the far away future, you are increasing the time until you have an empty nest, which we’re told can bring many pleasures for parents.

• Whatever you decide to do; whether as soon as one pops out you get pregnant again or wait until your eldest reaches their teenage years, it will be the right decision for you and your family.

• Remember nobody can make the right call for you and your partner. Just go with your heart and everything will work out wonderfully!