Anyone had a large age gap between siblings after a small one?

[SantaFio2]

and does it make any difference?

is it better, easier or harder?

and on having the third child with a bigger age gap to the other two, did your decide on a fourth closest to the third?

does that make sense? Genuinely curious

Fio my dh is the middle child of 3. His elder sister was adopted, then his mother immediately became pregnant with dh, so they only have a year age gap. His younger sister is 4 years younger. I think they teased her rather mercilessly.

I had a slightly bigger gap between my 2nd and first than my 1st and second, but only because Dd2 was a nightmare and i couldn't have coped with a smaller gap.
There was 2 years between Dd1 and Dd2 and then 3 years between Dd2 and Ds.

Do you mean big age gaps though ??

Doh ! Sorry it does say LARGE in the title doesn't it, ignore me, not awake properly yet.

I only have 2 children but there is a 5 1/2 year age gap between them (yes, they have the same father!). It works well for me as my eldest is at school all day and I can give the attention to the baby. I also find my dd is not jealous of my ds and will happily play with him when she comes home from school as she has not seen him all day. At the weekends we try to do things as a family like going to the zoo or swimming but my dh loves films and so does my dd so the two of them go off to the cinema together and she loves this special time with dh as she gets him all to herself.

Sorry forgot to say was at Mother and Toddlers today where I met someone with twins, who had by her own admission "an accident" there is 24 years age difference between the twins and her son!

Have 2 yrs 8 months between DS's. Am now pg with no.3 and there will be nearly a 5 yr age gap between baby and DS2

intersted to see what people say cos theres a small gap between my ttwo at the moment and we're taking a break after that but we are thinking of having more in the future.
(is 5 years a large gap cos thats what is between myself and my broter and we are really good mates and always have been)

No - I am pg with number 3 and my dss are 1 and 2. Wanted all my kids of roughly the same age. There is a 15 month gap between ds1 and ds2 and there will be a 23 month gap between ds2 and baby. But, hey, don't look at me - I'm officially mad and a very, very busy (frazzled) Mommy..... Personally, I just can't imagine leaving nappies behind to start it all again later - but I am sure life must be a little less chaotic having willing helpers and sensible age gaps!!! Good Luck! (oh and please keep your fingers crossed that I don't end up with twins)

I have 4.5 yrs between No's 1&2, 8yrs between 2&3 and 9yrs between 3&4. There's only two yrs between me and my bro and we fought like cat and dog and still don't get on, so I prefer bigger gaps.

anyone else?

anyone regret leaving a bigger gap?

I'm the middle one of three, dbro is 3y older and dsis is 7y younger. Until puberty hit us you could barely prise my brother and me apart (except at school, where he didn't want to know me). I found my sister quite a lot of fun until she reached her early teens, and we got on well most of the time, but after that we were at daggers most of the time. My mum and dad said that we were always a pair and a singleton, and they seriously considered having a fourth to make it two pairs.

There was 18 months between my older brothers, then 4 years to me (no I wasn't an accident ) I mostly enjoyed it - I suppose I missed the closeness of a more similarly aged sibling, but I still got a lot from my brothers and had more individual attention than they did. The only thing I didn't like was being so much 'the baby' and feeling that I could never 'catch up' with where my brothers were. But there's no ideal gap, I think family dynamics are much more complicated than just the age gaps!

There are 4 years between my first and second and 2.5 years between my second and third. I wanted a shorter gap between the first two but had secondary fertility probs. My main reason for wanting a smaller gap was because I am the eldest of five with a four year gap to my next sibling and in some ways I felt like an only child growing up - the next two were quite close as children and often ganged up on me and the youngest two were a lot younger. Funnily enough, the gaps between my kids are almost the same as the gaps between me and my oldest two siblings!

However, I now get on well with all my siblings (obviously age differences don't matter so much as adults).

I must say, although it wasn't as I planned, I did find it relatively easy looking after a four year old who had just started school and a new baby and when the second was a bit older I was able to take him to lots of activities during the day when she was at school.

I do know lots of people with 3 kids where the first two are 2 years apart and the third is 4/5 years younger (so the older 2 are at school when the youngest is a baby) and I think this would be my choice as to how to do it.

If the gap is bigger, I suppose the risk is you would find it hard to adjust to being tied down again. A friend of mine had her first two 18 months apart. She always wanted a third and after a few years started trying. She then had trouble conceiving and a miscarriage before getting pregnant with twins when her second was 8. She found it very hard when the twins were babies, even though they had been planned (though not the twins part of it IYSWIM)

I haven't, but my parents did. I'm the eldest, and my brother is just 16 months younger than me. But my sister is 10 years younger than me! Mum and dad planned it that way and really liked both sets of challenges. TBH for my sister it has been a lot like growing up as an only child, as my brother and I went away to uni when she was quite young (she was about 7 or 8) and she does get spolit much more - my parents simply have had more money to spend as she has got older for various reasons. I love having a much younger sister and we are great friends - although when growing up and having to share a room with a toddler I wasn't so keen at times, as you can imagine.

my gran had her first two 17 months apart then a 10 yr gap hulababy! My mum was an accident and the baby. just my gran has always moaned about it.

I always wanted my kids close togather so i am umming and ahhing about whether i actually will want any more. just feel i ought to for some reason.....

thanks everyone for your input. i suppose at the end of the day, all gaps have advantages and disadvantages as said here

I have 3 elder sisters ... who are 9, 7 and 5 years older

I am very spoilt

I recently had my 4th baby and My eldest dd is 13, then have ds who is 11 and ds2 who is nearly 4.It only worked out like that because my eldest 2 were from a previous relationship.

First 3 close together, now 10,8, and 7. Have a 2 and 1 year old. I really think the only difference is with the older children, I am always bringing them somewhere, or collecting them and this interferes with naptimes for the younger ones. On the other hand, they are great for helping out with the babies, keeping an eye on them and playing with them.

After having the large gap, we were surprised to be having another so soon (after 4 years of trying for no.4), but delighted.

i have a 12yr old, 8 yr old and 51/2 yr old and an 8 1/2 week old (happy accident!). Thought it would be easier with big gap of nearly 6 yrs - how wrong can you be!

I've got a 7 yo, a 6 yo and due no. 3 in Aug (only just pg). I will let you know Fio2!