to wonder who on earth actually thinks the ideal family is one boy then one girl two years later???

[walkertexasranger]

I have only ever seen this kind of family mentioned as the 'ideal' family on Mumsnet. Never, ever, ever heard of it anywhere else.

What's that all about then? Has anyone else heard of this mythical ideal family type? And why does it have to be two years

Where has this come from? What's so aspirational about it, does anyone know? It freaks me the fuck out because it seems so obviously designed to create a couple of mini-mes given that most men are older than their wives.

Has anyone ever heard of this in RL or is it another MN only thing?

I have always seen this as the ideal family (but didn't know that a lot of people felt that way too!!). My reason is that the brother would be there to protect his little sister - and I find that idea very sweet... but turns out I've had DD (only child so far) and I'm very happy with that!

at brother protecting little sister.

Mine used to kick the shit out of me!

Well, it's exactly what I've got and it's perfect for me, but have never really had it held up as an example of the ideal family.

Christ, how sad gogeredpanda.

Because the imaginary older brother will have hot imaginery friends for the girl to fancy, and that's what the woman doing the imagining always wished for when she was 16.

I did when I was younger as I always fancied having an older brother! (Just me and a younger sister.) But now I have grown up a little and have my own child (a daughter) I couldn't care less.

Is it something to do with same sex children fighting more in a territorial manner (in terms of presumptions rather than reality)?

gogoredpanda - thats what my MIL called it too....

Trillian -doesn't seem to be working that way with my two - most of DS's friends do seem to fancy DD, but she definitely doesn't reciprocate....

I kind of wanted a DS first because I assumed that with a boy I would be less worried during the teenage years about him walking home at night etc. Then any children that followed would have the benefit that DS had fought all their battles already and would be quite relaxed. As it goes, I have a DD and she will NEVER travel by public transport after 7pm.

Oh I didn't say it was true, it's just what you'd like to imagine

i have 1 boy, 1 girl, 16mnths apart.

alot of my friends are jealous and say im lucky and weirder, 'clever' why i produced two people the sex is irrelavant to me.

it is however, NOT IDEAL!!!

cant pass clothes on, they like different toys/ tv programs. the list is endless. and they like sharing a room at my mums but my ocd of giving them gorgeous rooms that match there individual likes means i cant give them a nice room to share.

i adore them, and its great having one of each but i find myself buying ds clothes and thinking dont grow out of it because then thats it, its done with!

when i was a kid the 'ideal' was always one four years older than the other - i think it's when the first goes to school you've got a 'new baby' to keep you amused

no idea what it is these days - where i am families are much more varied.. lots and lots more onlys around now than when i was young.

oh and the 'kitchen bunker' is not a kitchen cabinet, it's just the worktop - as in 'get off the bunker' when the kids try to sit on it

I thought it was because girls mature quicker than boys so they would be on a par with each other.

I think my DD is lucky to have a big bro (as I always wanted one) but I do wish I'd have left more than 1 year gap between them - 2 years seems much more ideal to me!

I suppose it is so the big brother can look after the younger sister.

I loved having a big brother and he was very protective! (told persistant boys to bugger orf etc)

I've never heard of this before. Lots of people seem to see two children as the ideal, though most in my experience don't really mind about the gender and I never, ever heard of anyone caring about the order, i.e. boy/girl vs girl/boy. I just can't understand how anyone could/would care about that.

Two years is the minimum gap for any families I know, can't think of anyone who had another baby less than 2 years after their first, obviously excluding twins etc :)