Anyone with experience of a larger age gap before a fourth child?

[MuddleBud]

I have 3 children close in age and considering another but there would be over a 6 year gap with the youngest and i don't think we'd have any more.

Does anyone have experience with this dynamic? Did you find the youngest to be limiting on the family in terms of what you can do?

Hi we have 18,12,9,6 and 11 months.

he is limiting as we do a lot of theme park days. We do find family comes with us or he goes to family for the day. But other then that currently no issues. But we do know first hand that as they get older the gap does make it hard. As interests are very different.

but we do make it work. And life hasn’t changed that much.

My brother is 6 years older and have a nephew 6 years younger. We all spent a lot of time together growing up. Nephew lived with us for a long time, we would be together at nans house in the holidays etc. I don't remember feeling like it was an issue that he was so much younger. But then our days out were things like visiting castles, beaches, country parks and national trust houses. My older brother liked to fish and I would be the person putting the bait on etc, felt like an integral member of the crew! So maybe it worked because we didn't really do anything where the age gap was going to cause an issue.

I've just had my 3rd with a 5 year gap, cant comment yet as she's pretty fresh but DH and I went for it based on the fact that our holidays/days out are camping, road trips, hikes, beach days etc so didn't feel like having a wide age range of children was going to be a bother.

From the opposite angle: I was the youngest child in a family with a bigger age gap between me and my older siblings. Everyone had left home by the time I reached my teens. So I grew up in a busy household where often activities/ holidays etc were aimed at older children but by the time I was that age, it sometimes felt like being an only child. My parents’ friends mostly had children similar in age to my older siblings rather than me. We had some lovely family holidays with another family when I was very little (age 3-5 maybe) but I was always the baby of the 2 families so couldn’t make the most of it. About 10 years later, I remember a holiday with just me ( now a stroppy teenager) and my parents in which we all argued as we all wanted different things out of a holiday and there was no one of my age to hang out with. I remember wishing my siblings had been closer to me in age and feeling envious of them.

Thanks for that unique perspective. I was wondering if there's a difference between the parents POV of the situation and the childs.

@Fakeplasticchimneyswhy has reminded me I used to also think fondly of all the fun my siblings probably had growing up together whereas I was largely alone in later years. However have since found out they were equally looking at my childhood with unrivaled parental attention, not having to share my stuff (apart from when my nephew was around but I don't think most of them really saw that side of things) etc and thinking it also looked idyllic! So it's all in the spin really.

Great feedback. Would love to hear more...