Reality of having two children with this age gap? Is having two a breeze?

[Jkkk]

Already have a 2 year old. Considering ttc to for second but wary… it is lots more work? Is it similar? More challenges or less because they play together etc? At the moment I have lots of spare time as my in laws have my toddler a lot and guess I’m worried it might be a big step up for me to manage two/ever have alone time!

My first two are 22 months apart. My first was really challenging, going from 1 to 2 was surprisingly easy for me. The 3rd not so much. It really does depend a lot on what your individual DC are like. DC2 is actually a lot harder than DC1 now, but as babies DC1 was a baptism of fire and virtually no sleep for 14 months. As primary school aged now any 2 of my kids together and fairly easy, 3 is another thing entirely.

I found it much harder with two, but that was because dd1 was quite a chilled baby but dd2 was quite highly strung and wanted to be attached to me at all times, which dd1 found hard. Dd1 was also a good sleeper but dd2 wasnt.
They both ended up being easy going teenagers. It was the baby and toddler stage I found hard.

It will be much more work until they are 2 or 3 and can start playing properly with the older child / start nursery / are out of nappies etc. As they both get older you may find it less work as they will have each other to be friends with, rather than your eldest staying as an only child and needing you as a friend / playmate all the time.

You would have around a 3 year age gap if you start trying now I guess. IMO that’s a nice gap. I had a 2 year gap then an 18 month gap and it was brutal! 3 yrs means you can enjoy the baby more now the elder one is a little older, esp as they can do a bit of nursery here and there to give you alone time with the baby. However there isn’t such a big age gap that they won’t play together or have things in common. There is a 3.5 yr age gap between my eldest and youngest, and while they can’t do as many things together as each of them can wirh their middle sister, they still do play a lot. They play floor is lava, games on the trampoline, build dens, play on the switch, they like a lot of the same YouTube content (although diffwrent films and tv). They don’t do things like football, crafts, board games, card games or reading together as their abilities don’t match up there and both find it frustrating, but maybe this will change as they get older.

Exactly 2.5yr age gap between my two and I love it. An adjustment for sure but it's so much fun. It felt chaos until new baby naps were more predictable and regular, then it all seemed to fall into place. 😊

Well.. two is double one haha. It's not a breeze by any means. But it's definitely worth it. Depends on personalities if they are great playmates or if you are a referee (usually a bit of both) but I'd say around 3 years is an awesome age gap from experience.