Will I regret not trying for a third child?

That quote is bollocks, you only need to read some of the threads on here to see that.

I was so broody for number 3 but it didn’t happen after trying for a month or two so we stopped trying. Mine are now 8&10 and I am so bloody glad we didn’t do it. We love our life, a third would have upset the dynamic and cost us so much more. No regrets and actually relief tbh.

But you don’t have a third so you are assuming all this. You’d have found a way. That way doesn’t mean regretting the existence of the youngest child.

Interesting thread. My DS twins are 10 and I got quite broody a while ago when I realised they were starting high school in a year and that the days of walking them to school were soon coming to an end. I think with twins it can feel worse as it all ends at the same time and you don't have that gap between one going off to high school and the younger one still at primary. However, I had to really think hard whether my emotions and this reason was healthy enough to try and have another child. I always loved the idea of large families and in an ideal world I would have 3 at least. Our house is small though, and financially don't think it would stretch plus I want to support them through high school as much as possible and not sure how I would do that with a baby. Yours are still young though so it might work out fine.

I don't really understand this "you will never regret the child you had". I would definitely have regretted having a third. GCSEs, A levels, uni, jobs etc etc have been far more stressful and expensive with the CoL than I anticipated.

Oh, and money can't always be made in a recession.

I yearned for a third when my children were aged 2 and 4. Hubby wouldn't agree and felt we had one of each and should be content. I couldn't accept that internally and knew I wanted a third. I left it as I respected his point of view and understood the reasons. 2 years later he broached it and said he had been thinking about it and would be happy to try for a third if I still wanted to. I very much did, we had a third and he has completed our family. He brings the whole family so much joy , we adjusted our spending and kept hand me downs etc..

Your situation with age and children sounds similar to mine. Head said no but I wanted one to the point I went for it. It was tough going from 2 to 3. Made me realise I didn’t want a fourth (as oppose to a previous poster who thinks this is how it works!)

I think women are conditioned to believe it’s 2 and that’s it. My parents had at least 9 brothers and sisters each around them. It all depends how you want your life to be. I’ve happily traded an awful lot to have my family of 5. I now get hand me downs from my 14 year old. But I’m good with that!

Kindly, it sounds like you are sad that you know you will never have a small baby or be pregnant again. But there is so so so much more to parenting than that (and tbh it’s not even the best stage hahahaha).
Enjoy your lovely kids and every stage of their development.

we stuck at two and after a few years being back and forth on it now they are 11 and 7 I'm glad we did.

Our second was IVF and after he was born we had a couple of embryos still frozen, so they burned a hole in my mind for a while. But husband and I were never on for rolling the dice again at the same time.

then the pandemic happened and I was REALLY glad we hadn't.

As time has gone on I'm more and more glad. I loved the baby and young children years but they are hard work and I don't have more of that in me.

My kids are pretty high needs emotionally and my husband is pretty introverted so I do the emotional support and I often think that having one more in the mix could have broken us. Husband would have worried about the financial side and worked even harder to provide for us all.

My career is taking off again and I'm loving that. I wouldn't have the capacity for that and be the mother I want to (and they need) with another one to juggle.

Sometimes the head is right. in the last couple of years my heart has caught up and is grateful!

Meantime, I have adult children who need full time care. They would not support each other if I popped my clogs.

Head over heart time.

They aren't little for long. They become expensive teenagers that often cause no end of worry. Why don't you read through the secondary, further and higher education threads to get a taste of what's ahead?

I would quit while you are ahead.

Someone said “you’ll never regret the child you had. You may regret not having the child you wanted”

we had this when going from 3 to 4. I am pregnant with our 4th. We are by no means well off but we can manage and our children are are, loved and cared for. I am much busier but I can honestly say the jump from 2-3 was barely noticeable once the first few
weeks were over.

money can always be made, children can’t and provided you could provide for them in all areas of life then I would go ahead but having a larger family was always very important to me. I also think of when I get older. I’m not expecting my children to HAVE to look after me but I have just watched a family close to us loose their Mum and she had 4 children who all shared the responsibility of care and supported each other in grief when she died. It’s not always the way but a lot of siblings stay close as they grow up. I talk to my siblings often

Absolutely not. Once you have 3 you will want 4. You have a great set up, two healthy children, resources to spread between them, stable employment (I hope) and ability to provide for them. And God forbid imagine if that 3rd child had something wrong with it and that perfect family dynamic was destroyed. Could you live with that? Knowing it was all for ‘because we wanted a 3rd?’

Enjoy and be grateful for what you have.

No you won't regret it, it sounds like stopping at 2 is perfect for you and your family.

Could you cope if it were twins? Could you cope if your child had a disability? What impact would a third have on your two dc? I longed for a third but we couldn’t afford it and I knew that although an extra one would have been a stretch- twins would have been impossible. Eventually with time (and reaching 40) I was very much glad we stopped at two.