How many children? Why?

[6502]

In the US, usually, when a couple has many children (like 10+) it is connected to some kind of Christian religious imperative. That imperative makes no sense to me at all.

Here in Japan I have seen a few TV shows featuring couples who have 10-15 children.
In each case there is no religious imperative driving it --- they just seem to have lots of children.

The problem is, I never catch these shows at the proper time when the couple explains why they had so many children... I only know that in each case they are not religious. Another thing, it is very common for people to have just 1 kid here. (I can't get a good answer out of anyone here... everyone I mention it to either say they say they want 0 or 1 kids).

So, I come here.

How many children do people have?
How many were you shooting for?
Were you even shooting for a number?
Anybody wanted to have many children? Why?

[Separation]

1. We have two.

Our first child was a girl, and our second was a boy . When we found out that our son was a special needs child we decided that that was it. Prior to that we said we would try for one boy and one girl. I've seen some couples try 4-5 times for that boy and get girl after girl.

Our thought at first was to have children early so that when we are 40-50 the kids will be out and we will be still young enough to go out and see the world. Obviously our son will be with us for life. But we wouldn't change that for the world.

[kopper65]

2. Two boys

Same here. Two boys, our second born with Duchenne muscular dystrophy. But we waited quite a while (13 years) before having kids so that we could enjoy ourselves first, ha! I realize that I'll be in my 60s by the time my youngest graduates from high school, but as a special-needs child, he may be living with us until we die, anyway (unless some pretty dramatic advances are made in Duchenne research, which is very possible). And yes, we wouldn't change that now either.

[dkar]

3. 1 of 8

i have 7 brothers and sisters and we were not a religious family. in fact, i didn't see the inside of a church until my cousin got married and i was 17. my parents just wanted a big family i guess. dad was not good a keeping a job, but my oldest brother worked some when he was in his teens and that helped alot. later he left for good but we were all grown up by then. he left because mom was not faithful or at least that is what he claimed.

having a big family is good it think. i see my sister and her kids every weekend and most of my brothers every month or so. we get along well. we help each other out when one of us is out of a job or down on our luck. i haven't worked in a long time - never married - but my daughters take a lot of my time and money and my sister helps me out.

[ileus]

4. planned for two.

ended up with two...

One of each...worked out perfectly for us.