Is your family shrinking?

No. Even if my brother doesn't have children my sister and I have has enough to keep the family the same size.

Yes, actually. Out of my sibling and cousins, 5 girls altogether, only 1 has a child so far and only one other likely to have children in the future /she is the youngest one/. And she doesnt have cousins on the other side of her family. None of this is by choice or preference as far as I know.

I'm nearly 40. I'm a bit of an anomalie as both my parents were only children, but partly due to this I'm one of 4. We have 2 (done), and one my sister's has 4. My other 2 don't and are unlikely to (a combination of cost, choice & health). There are loads on DH's side though we don't really see them as they're in Scotland and we're in the SE. He's also one of 4 and they all have kids (4, 3 & 1). One of his nephews is already a dad too.

I have one child and my brother has one child. My husband’s siblings have no children and probably never will. I’ve tried to keep close with my cousins and their kids so my son has family when we’ve gone. I feel sad for him. My first pregnancy was horrendous so I didn’t want another and I really regret it now. For my son, not me.

Absolutely.

I'm Gen X - huge family gatherings, lots of cousins. Everyone had two or three children, less than their parents but still a decent number.

By now, there should be about 45 great grandchildren in my granny's side if the family was reproducing at the same rate. There are 3. My, my siblings and my cousins children are approaching their 30s with no sign of children, and its unlikely to change. So one more generation of big family gatherings for us, but my grandchildren won't experience the same

My great nan had 11 kids, my nan had 4, my mother 3. My uncle has 2 kids, the others have none. My brother's have none and I have 2. My 2 are the only actual children in the family at the moment so yes in our case the family is definitely shrinking.

My mum is an only child due to her mum’s health problems. My dad died along time ago- he had a half sibling he found out about when he was a teenager but they have now also died. They had children but were much older than my brother and me growing up so we don’t know them. I have two children and my brother has none. My children don’t see their cousins on their dad’s side due to a petty childish family feud. I would have loved a bigger family but circumstances are what they are.

Not yet, every generation of our family for a long time has had 2 kids. My Dad’s side is actually getting bigger because his only uncle was killed in the war before having children so of his parents’ generation on both sides there was only them and therefore he had no cousins.

my dad and his brother both had two kids, my brother and I both have two kids - my cousins are still teens (as are the 3 on my mum’s side from her brother) so remains to be seen how our generation pans out but we’ve always been a small family (cousins all live on the other side of the world and are basically a generation younger than us so we didn’t grow up with cousins)

on the other hand I think my mum is related to most of Stockton-On-Tees!

There's also a lot less connectivity between cousins than there used to be IME. My ILs cousins have a big get together three times a year, and a couple of us have kids now. They talk about the next generation continuing the tradition, and we nod politely, but really, the next generation have lives and friends that are very separate to family.

It's a deal enough getting together with our kids immediate cousins, let alone fannying around trying to fit in someone whose mum happened to be sibling to my mum.

Yes

my Grandparents had three kids and six Grandkids. There are only four great grand children though. Unlikely to be any more

On the other side: three kids and five grandkids but still only 5 children between five people

I only really have information about my mum's side. Her parents both had about 4 siblings. They all had about 3 children. My mum has 4 children but her brothers only 2 so I had 4 cousins, together there was 8 of us. So less cousins than my mum had.

I have 3 children but also pregnant with #4. My sisters are 20, 18 and 16 and don't have children yet (I'm 27 so quite a big age difference) so my kids don't have any cousins from my side. The 20 year old wants 3 and the others said they want 1 or 2 so my mum will most likely have more or at least the same number of grandchildren as her parents.

DH's parents had 6 kids but one died without having had children. One sister has 6 kids, other sister has 2 and one brother has 5, youngest brother doesn't have any yet. So that's 13 cousins, 16 (nearly 17) together with my kids. All of DH's aunts and uncles had about 4-6 kids, so his side of the family is getting smaller because of his sister having only 2, and most likely his younger brother won't have a lot either.

Yup, unfortunately, this is the case for many. But some make up for it by having more dc. For example dh youngest of 3. One brother had none, one had one and then we had 3! No hope in more as the others are almost 60. I am one of 2 and my sibling had 2. However, my dad is one of 3 and him and one brother had two the other none. And the other brother that had two, looks unlikely his kids will have any...one of them might have 1 or 2, but the other most likely not. A friend of mine is one of 2 her brother will not have any kids and she has 4..... So it does seem like families are shrinking.

My children have 9 children between them, so I am a busy grandma, which is lovely. My parents and siblings were awful and a lot of NC went on, so really, it's just me and my immediate kids. I like it this way.

Not really for me. I have 3 half-siblings and 4 cousins. They each have two children , except for two of my cousins who have none.

I'm quite significantly the youngest in my generation, and I had my two children in my thirties. My children have six cousins from my side of the family, but there's 27 years between the eldest cousin and my youngest child. To the point that my first great-nephew was born six months after my own youngest! My two married 'niblings' currently have 2 children each. We seem to be consistently having two children, or none, on my side.

My husband is one of three, and has (I think) 9 cousins. We've got three 'niblings', and they are very close in age to our children. One of his cousins who we see occasionally also has one child of a similar age. Some of his cousins (who I've not met) have older children, but I'm not sure how many.

My children have 9 first cousins, compared with my 4, but the same number as my husband.

Until any government put in place good pre/post maternity care, free child nursery places for all and protect women’s rights in the workplace the birthrate will continue to fall.

There’s 4 of us so far only my DB has kids. I hope to so does my DS DB2 doesn’t want any,
my cousins however have been fruitful so our family lives on 🤣

Yes I would say family is shrinking my DH is an only child, I have a younger sibling.
My younger sibling and partner can’t have children sadly.
I have 2 DC and honestly I can’t see me ever having grand children.
I think the younger generation realise how tough it is to have a family in this day and age with costs not only that most now are prioritising their own needs and careers.

Am one of 4 children, none of us had kids of our own (two of us because of having cancer and are unable), one because he is a mess and the other, though married, decided they didn't want any.

My partners only sister died when she was 21, of cancer and my partner never had children.

So both of our immediate families stop when we die. We do both have cousins and those cousins have children.

I have 4 cousins in total—2 on each side of my family. My DCs have 6 cousins—3 on my side and 3 on DH’s side.

My mum was one of 6 and my dad one of 2. All had a least 2 kids each, some 3 or 4 so lots of cousins. I had 2 and my brother had 2 but my sister has had none.

I have 2 cousins.
my kids only have 1, because my sibling is gay and doesn’t want children, and secondary infertility hit with my husbands sibling. None of that is anyone’s fault; it’s how it is. My DH has 32 first cousins, so he comes from a big family. Despite my great grandparents having 5 and 8 children, this legacy has not bourne more fruit.

9 in total, including in-laws…

Women have more options now and many are choosing to not have children or as many children as previous generations. This is a good thing

My young adult kids have been looking ahead recently and bemoaning the fact that big family gatherings might be a thing of the past - dh and I are both one of 5. All his siblings have children (10 between them), 2 of mine do (4 kids) so they have 14 cousins. However, we only have 2 kids, so they've started to realise that in future, when we no longer meet with my/dh's siblings at Christmas (assuming this will happen at some point - maybe when all their kids have children too) there will be just the two of them, their partners, us and however many kids they have. They both want children though - I imagine just a couple each - so if they're able to have them, I think that's a big enough gathering personally!

Oh yes. 4 grandparents, 3 children and they've ended up with one grandchild. Neither DH nor SiL can have any more. DS has a few second cousins on both sides (3 each I think)