Is your family shrinking?

Given that mum was one of 11 and dad one of 10 and I have 56 first cousins (that I know of) many of whom have kids...no. However I don't actually see many of them regularly and currently, sadly, it's mainly funerals when we get together.

My parents had five children. Between us we gave them five grandchildren and so far they have five great children. So, yes, my family is shrinking.

On DH side yes.

Im one of four and my siblings and i all had kids starting late 20s/early 30s so our family has stayed big/fun/noisy. Most of my cousins have had DC.

Dh one of three. One sibling only just had a first at age 40. A younger sibling wants kids but left it quite late & struggling. Of his cousins, only one has had kids and they had them really late. They all have loads of money its like they've all just waited and waited

Ours is growing. My mum was an only, Dad one of three but a very late afterthought, I had 4 cousins all much older than me. I’m one of three. My DH both parents are only children, they had four children (no cousins). For my children, 5 cousins on my side and 6 with a 7th on the way on DH’s side. I can see the next generation may well have fewer children though.

We have quite a large family but as it’s got bigger we’ve seen less of each other, when there were only 3-4 children in the family there seemed to be lots of gatherings, contact and fuss made over the children from the extended family. As we’ve gone on to have 2nd, 3rd and even 4th children then each family unit seemed to become much more insular for one reason or another. My oldest was always playing with his cousin but my youngest don’t even know who their cousins are and only usually get their friends attend their parties. I have a friend who only has one child and they often gather together, all get together for Christmas, frequently plays with his couple or cousins, lots of fuss from all the family on birthdays etc . Large families sound great and I love ours very much and obviously each one of our children is absolutely as precious as if we just had one but the more children there are in the wider definitely the more diluted the interest and love to go round. Which I do totally understand, even when I just had one nephew I obviously gave him much more attention than now I’ve my own children and multiple nieces and nephews.

Not if you only look at my side of the family. My dad is an only child, mum has one sibling- who only had one child, so I have one cousin and one uncle.

I only have one sibling, who will also have only one child.

DH and I have 3 kids, considering a 4th, so bucking the trend on my side.

On DH side, his family are Catholic, and each parent has 6 siblings, all of whom have 2 or more kids. He has so many cousins he can't keep track. Many he has never met.

My children have said that they’re a little sad that they don’t have any first cousins. I’m an only and DH’s siblings have chosen not to have children.

So our immediate family is shrinking, but I keep in touch with my first cousins and my children know their second cousins through them (who are similar ages), which is nice.

Yes, I’m one of 4 children and only 2 of us have children. Both are one-and-done.

Interesting one. Dh and I are both 1 of 4 siblings. I have 6 cousins on one side and 9 on the other (was 4 for a long time but then my uncle remarried and overnight we acquired a lot more!). Dh has 5 cousins on one side and I'm not sure how many there are on the other (his parent is one of 7 siblings and it's all quite dysfunctional so at any given time it's rare for them all to be speaking to each other!)

Our dc have 3 cousins on one side and 9 on the other. So I guess a bit smaller but not significantly so?

Dh and I rarely see our cousins tbh. One thing about bigger families is it can be quite difficult to get everyone together especially if you don't live near each other. And there's never any guarantee that you'll all get on.

I have 28 cousins, my DC have 7, my DH doesn’t have any.

I have 5 cousins.
My kids have 11 cousins.
So not true for us.

From a worldwide increase in population we certainly should be having less. My mum and dad were from large families back when there was a higher risk of mortality. They each had 7 siblings. I am one of 2, I have 2 and so does my sister. My DCs have 4 cousins, rather about the 30 odd that I had. So yes, big difference, but they know no different.

I have a brother and 10 cousins. My partner has a brother and 2 cousins (a further 2 have died) my sons will likely have no cousins. Of the 12 of our cousins they have produced 12 children so far. My parents cousins generally had very few kids as well. I will likely not live to meet my grandkids, 4 of my great grandparents being alive when I was born. I'd say our family has got smaller.

I have no cousins. My mum was an only child. She had one cousin.
My Dad has a sister, who has no children.
Family gatherings were very small when I was a kid.

My kids have 3 cousins on one side and 3 step-cousins on the other side. So, more than I did.

Growing up we lived near my.cousins and we were all close in age. I have 12 first cousins, my dc have 2 ( on exdh's side as my late db didn't have any dc). Dgs has 3 so he's already doing better than his dm.

Yes. I had 7 cousins. My dc's have three, two they never see as they are much older and in another country.

A shrinking family is something I'm very conscious of and it gets me down TBH. Fewer aunts and uncles, grandparents died long before mine ever did. We have had fewer children and had them later.

My family has always been small. 1 sibling, 1 cousin. Paternal grandparents died before I was born so that part of my life has never existed. Parents split when I was 11 so together family unit was no more. Brother moved to the army also when I was 11 so it was now just me and my dad in my childhood home. Maternal aunt and uncle have never had a child so no cousin there. My mum and dad both have 1 sibling each. My aunt on my dad’s side had one child. Same aunt died about 13 years ago. Cousin lives abroad. I love my brother lots and wish we saw more of each other but we have drifted apart. We do keep in touch but not enough. He has 2 children and is married but they live so far away so it’s not like a sibling who pops round for a cuppa while the cousins play. Nowhere near.

My wonderful maternal grandma passed away 4 years ago and it was devastating and massive loss. Still lucky to have my wonderful Grandad and I dread the day we lose him too.

I’ve got 4 children. Extremely unusual in my family and I love it ❤️. So I’m the other way.

My parents were both 1 of 3.
Dad's family: 2 children (me and my brother)
Mum's family: 6 children (including me and my brother.
My brother passed away and only me and one cousin had children. My son is the only children on my dad's side.

I have/had four uncles and their wives. I have 13 cousins.
My children have two uncles and their wives. They have 2 cousins.
I have six kids!

We seem to hold steady as there are quite a lot of people in previous generations who either didn't marry or didn't have children.

My parents each had three siblings, but of these six, only three had children. I am one of two, and we had three first cousins on DM's side and three on DF's side.

Of these six cousins, only three had children, one on DM's side had three and there are three on DF's side.

I have two DC, and they have four cousins, one from XH's only sister, and three from my DSis.

But DSis is making up for everyone - her three DC have each had four, and the oldest of these also has four, so she has 19 offspring in total which easily outnumbers the rest of us put together!

Both my DC say they don't intend to have any children so I guess at some point DSis's DC will constitute the entire remainder of the family.

I have 9 cousins, if me and DP have a child they will have zero aunts uncles or cousins.

Out of 8 of us cousins on my mums side none of us have children. On my dads side I was my 2 cousins only cousin but they have 5 kids between them so that side is expanding!

My Mum has 1 brother, he had 2 sons, who in turn have 4 children between them. My Dad has 6 siblings, who have 13 children between them (myself included). Those 13 children have had 17 children between them!! My husband is the eldest of 4, and his younger brother has 4 children. My parents are in their 80s, so having lots of children back then was normal, as it was going back even further. Yes, families are shrinking. Many couples are choosing to have no children or may be 1 or 2. It's not often you see large families of 6-7 children nowadays.

Yes, especially on one side - my maternal grandparents had 3 children, 8 grandchildren. My mum has 2 children, 2 grandchildren (both mine and my sister won’t be having any). Amongst my 7 cousins on that side there are only 2 children, both to the cousin closest in age to me. We see them quite regularly and think of them almost like cousins, because their dad is an only child so they’ve got no first cousins at all (mine have 3 from their dad’s side). One of my cousins only just got married at 38 but I think she’d like children, so she may have one or two. I think only one of the others, who is quite a bit younger and male, might have kids but I also wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t as he has only recently got a long term partner it wouldn’t really be easy with their lifestyle (extreme sports, travel, etc. but they are only in their mid-30s). So that’s a totally of 4 great grandchildren from the 8 grandchildren (with a possible 2-4 more, but we’ll see - either way, certainly no bigger than the generation before).

The other side was already small - my paternal grandparents had 2 children, 3 grandchildren. My dad has 2 grandchildren (obviously) and there won’t be more. His brother, who had his son quite late (early 40s) has one son, who has recently married and is only about 30, so they may have children.

Yep. DS has four cousins (two on each side), I had 13, plus a ton of second cousins. DH has 7 I think. But apart from one of mine, I only really see them at family funerals now.