to think three children isn't a "big" family?

[CheerfulYank]

DH and I have just had DC3 and I'm surprised at the amount of people who think it's a lot. (Not that it doesn't feel like a lot some days :o)

We've gotten so many comments about having our hands full, "surely you're done now", " wow! Three?!", etc. DH was a party the other day and the host introduced him to someone else and said "he and his wife have thirty seven kids or something." Obviously he was joking, but most people seem the think that three is a lot.

I thought 4+ was a "larger family", personally. Am I mistaken?

I know one family with five, three families with four, about 6 families with 3 and all the rest have one or two. Mostly two.

Of the families I know with three, in three cases the 2nd pregnancy was twins, so no idea if they would have had a third or not otherwise.

Congratulations, OP! He is beautiful and making me broody! I think one or two DC's is the prevailing norm now (at least in my friends group), but I would consider 4+ to be a large family. I am personally sticking to two at most - one hand each for crowd control. Enjoy all your lovely DC's and ignore snarky comments.

We have three (now teens). I actually think it is a 'big family' but I grew up as an only child in a quiet house with me fitting in quietly around my parents. All the chaos of 5 of us seems huge to me and I don't think I'll ever really get used to it .

YANBU. 3 is a pretty average sized family.

We have 5DC and I wouldn't call ours a large family,yet we constantly get comments.Asking if they're all ours(they all look alike)and asking if I'm a childminder,they all look like me.

We have 3 and have endured lots of similar comments- we had them within 5 years of getting married so some family members were also commenting on our "rush" but I was over 30 when we got married and you never know how things will go...it's annoying but hopefully people will get over it and stop commenting.

I think a large family has to be more than two but also has to be more than you have yourself - otherwise it's just the right size! :)

I have three so four or more is a large family.

It's more than 'replacing' the adults. If everyone in a family had three in a generation OK it wouldn't be 50% more in the next generation .... but there would be an increase. 3 is a big family in those terms.

My grandma was the youngest of 12...

I had a friend with 3 in the days when I only had 2, and she herself used to talk about it as though it was a massive family - 'all 3 of mine', 'my 3', etc. In the end a lot of people we knew ended up with 3 though.
The poster who said everything is set up for two children has a point.