Is your family shrinking?

[sunshine244]

I know there's a trend for people to have fewer kids currently, and am curious is others are finding similar patterns.

My kids only have one cousin despite them having 4 sets of aunts and uncles in their 40s. There's not likely to be any more children due to circumstances/age.

My own 6 cousins (40s-50s) have only had 4 children in total, and again it is unlikely there will be more.

Family gatherings are a lot quieter than when I was a child!

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.