Is three children a large family in the UK?

[grocklebox]

I'm looking at this topic and am surprised by how many posts are about having three children, or even people with 2 considering having a third. Is three seen as particularly large in the UK? I wouldn't have considered any less than four as being slightly large, and would really have expected most posts to be about 5+ children.

Just curious, no judgement.

I have three and don't consider it a "large" family. Maybe slightly above average, that's all.

In my experience, yes. I have 3 and am a bit of an anomaly - the only one of my friends to have ventured beyond 2. There are a couple of other mums with 3dc at school, but not many, I can actually only think of another 3 families. There is one family with 4 dc and one with 5dc, but that is the extent of it! I think the national average is something like 1.8 children per family, so well below 3.

To add - I don't think of my own family as particularly large, but I get the impression that others do.

It feels large enough to me!

3 is not large really...it can feel large though if you are surrounded in RL life by friends with 1 or 2DC.

I wouldn't only expect posts from people with 5+ DC's though, I was lurking on here when I was pg with DC3 because we knew we wanted 4DC so I started getting ideas of how to cope with day to day stuff and got the dc's into those habits early.

I wasn't only expecting posts from 5+, just surprised about how many posts were about 3, when I have never considered 3 to be a large family (but then where I come from lots of us are one of 7, or 9, or like a friend of mine, 1 of 15!!)

I think it depends on where in the UK. My friends in London only have one or two DC because housing costs are so high. We live outside London, and lots of people have 3 here (including us).

I only know 3 families with 4 DC, and none with more.

It also depends what school your kids go to, my eldest attended a non denominational school for a whole and having 3 was a big family.

He then got a place at the local catholic school where 3 kids is very average.

I am the opposite tumble. I know loads of London families with three and none where I live now.

I think there has been a shift of perception over time.

I was one of three, and growing up I never felt we were something out of the ordinary as a family, as there were lots of others with three or more kids.

Now I'm a mother of three, and I do feel that people regard us as a 'large family'. It's also our county council's definition of a large family (3+ children) which means I could apply for extra large bins

I have three and would say 3 is pretty normal here (east anglia)

I have 4dc and know several other families with 4dc, some are due to 2nd relationships/blended families.

I also know quite a few 5+ dc families at school/Brownies, at least 4 off the top of my head.

I don't consider us a large family BUT I do notice that family memberships/tickets etc are mostly aimed at 2adults and 2or3 children.

Most people i know have 3 kids, i don't think its large at all. I would say 4+ is large.

I know quite a few families with 3 children. It is larger than the average family but it doesn't really feel particularly large to me.

Our council only give out the extra large bins if there's 6 or more people in the household. So I guess they think you need 4+ children to qualify as large.

It's not large per se, but many people do stop at two children for various reasons, not least financial concerns.

I'd say 4+ is large. In saying that, all my friends have 2 or less. Apart from me. I have 3.

We have 3. I have never considered us to be a large family. A lot of people round here have 3 - Northern Ireland. I think of 5 or more children when I hear 'large family.'

We have 3 and out of my work and non-school related friends (iyswim) we're fairly unusual. The older two go to a catholic school though, where 3 is the norm

National average of families of 3 and more kids is 14% (but poorer parts of London like Tower Hamlets can be 20%). Apparently families with just one are 47%.

We have 3 and where we live (naice but not posh East Herts) there are quite a few families with 3 or 4, but the overwhelming majority is two kid families. None of my friends have more than 2, so we stand out, though personally I think more than three is large but that might be because I come from a 3 kid family! What makes me stand out is that I work full time.

I have a large black bin!

We have 3DC. When we decided to gave no. 3 lots if people said "but you already have one of each, why do you need another one?"

DH is on of 5 and I am one of 4, perhaps that influenced our decision.

Incidentally I think 3 is still fairly unusual even in our Catholic school.

I'm mid 30s and no one I went to school with has had 3 or more DCs.

None of DCs' friends have more than 1 sibling.

One women I knew from UG Uni had 3. One woman from pg Uni had 5 but 4&5 were a contraceptive failure resulting in twins.

At toddler groups I went to for years there was one family of 3dc (middle DC disabled) and one of 4 where the last was an accident.

So yes I'd say 3 is large esp if not a blended family and all were planned.

At my daughters school (catholic) three is totally normal. I have four and no one bats an eyelid it's really common. I only notice people staring when I'm out of the school environment I think it's more to do with the fact I have three under four though. I know loads of families with five, two with six and one crazy woman has twelve!!!

When I meet a family with three little ones I often think "Wow! How does she manage??" and then I think, "Hang on ... I am managing three!"