The pressure to procreate - everyone we know is having a second child

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Amy and Aaron Galvin
ChiTown Parent

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Lately, every time we turn around another friend, acquaintance (or Facebook connection) is announcing a second pregnancy. In our playgroup alone five out of the seven families are expecting another baby with a first child under the age of two.

We definitely know we want to add to our family in the future. We would be thrilled to give Mia a younger brother or sister some day, but this second child baby boom is giving us a sense of urgency and pressure to procreate faster than we expected.

It would appear that there is a growing trend of having two within two (two children that are two years apart). We think this has a lot to do with 1.) our peers are having children at an older age 2.) the desire to have three or more children and 3.) getting all of the baby and pregnancy stuff out of the way quickly.

We are just getting into our groove as parents of a toddler and still marveling at the fact that our first pregnancy wasn't that long ago. Do we really want to jump in again so soon? Can we handle having two tiny ones at once? Is it fair to Mia to bring another baby into our family so quickly?

Then there are the other thoughts. We're not getting any younger. There is never a perfect time to have a baby. Mia could really enjoy having a sibling close in age. There's nothing wrong with babies.

When to have children is definitely a personal choice and every family must do what's right for their own brood. Just like everything else in parenthood, we'll figure out what to do soon enough.

Amy and Aaron Galvin live together, run a business together and raise their daughter, Mia, together in River North. Amy also blogs at secondcitymommy.com.

See more of Amy and Aaron's stories here.