Is it nicer for older siblings to know the gender or have a surprise?

[littlepeas]

What do we think? They have (different) preferences!

Are you telling other people, ie friends and relatives? If so I'm sure they'll find out anyway!

We'll either find out and tell everyone, or not find out.

depends how old siblings are I suppose my DS will only be 25 months when DC2 comes along so we have kept the gender a surprise as he as not really old enough to know what is going on.

Others I know with older kids have found out to prepare the older child for a brother or sister but then obviously this never used to happen as we didn't used to be able to find out gender - in the old days.

It all depends on if you want to know the sex I think - even if DS was older I don't think I would find out the sex - but I like the surprise element!

Well, we thought it was nice to tell them, so they could talk about a little brother or sister which brings it to life a bit more than 'the new baby'. Tbh we were always planning to find out the sex and tell everyone, but this was another reason to do it that way!

Agree with rowtunda that you and DH should have the casting vote - unless you disagree too?

Interesting! My dp wants a surprise but I'd like my DD to know what she's getting.

(can't forget how disappointed I was when my mum had my second brother! )

We wanted to find out anyway but also thought it would be easier to prepare DS if he knew in advance (he's 5). He had been saying he really wanted a little brother and not a sister so when we were told it was a girl it helped to be able to get him over the disappointment prior to the actual arrival. It didn't take long!

Our ds is 5 also and we have found out and told him. I think it has really helped him prepare.

Our DS1 was 8yr when I was pregnant with DS2.

We took him to our gender scan and was allowed to tell all tje family that he was getting a little brother.

Made it more exciting for him

I'd find out and tell them. I think it will help them to prepare a bit better as it won't just a "a baby", it will be a little brother or a little sister. It does depend a bit on the children, but in general I would say children benefit from preparation.

My stepsons were overjoyed when we told them I was pregnant and were both adamant they wanted a baby brother. I wanted to know the gender anyway but we felt it best to find out and tell them so we could push the positives if it was a girl.

They benefited from knowing as knowing they were getting a brother made it more real to them.

Mine were convinced it was a boy both times and it was, we didn't want to find out so didn't.

My older ones are 14, 12 and 9. We don't know the sex and my children are very excited to find out. This might be because of their ages though.

DD will is adamant it is 'her sister' I am carrying. I reckon it's a boy. We'll see who is right at the scan!