How Many Children to Have | Dave Rubin & Jordan B Peterson

I have 6 kids and I absolutely see this play out. I often feel bad for the older ones who got so much individual attention from me and I feel happy for the kids 3, 4, 5, and 6 because I feel like they were "saved" from my meddling in a way. Once we had 3 kids, they all just wanted to be in the same room with each other and I went from entertaining kids up in my face for the last 4 years 100% of my day (which drove me absolutely crazy) to them all wanting to be in the toy room together and sitting silently by myself for a few minutes (with them in earshot, of course). Now, having a gaggle of 5 running around helping each other (yes, fighting, but that's what I'm there for) and a newborn means that the newborn gets what she needs and the older kiddos lives are relatively undisrupted by a new baby - their life is stable and happy, with lots of joy to relish in a newborn sibling's smiles. I am so grateful for not stopping when I felt overwhelmed with 2-3 kids. Instead I asked for help of everyone and anyone of good will who would help me. We got through it and now I'm seeing the incredible gift a larger family has to offer both myself and the community at large.

I have 4 kids, 2 girls and 2 boys. Plus a great husband. A big family is loud, busy, crazy, but sooo much fun. I stayed home and I do not regret a second. Life is about choices. Sure a "career" and some more money would have been nice, BUT now I get to have lots of grandchildren. I now have my first grand baby. I get want Dr. Peterson is saying, babies are what life is all about. Money can't buy that experience, it can't buy love.

I am an only child who was raised with cousins close in age, so I never missed not having siblings. I think only children are just fine as long as parents socialize them often with other children.

Yeah, 15 seems optimal.

Last year I got a ride to the airport by an Uber driver who has 11 children (all from the same wife). They live in Vancouver (one of the most expensive cities in the world) and still they manage. He also said he comes from a family of 29 children. That's right - he has 28 siblings and all from the same mom and dad! He moved to Canada from a Somali village where the population is around 300 people and they are all related. When a man in the village takes a spouse from another village, she moves to the man's village. He was such an awesome guy and I gave him a 100% tip :))

For me at least 3 fuckers running around my after my mid thirties but I'm not gonna start popping kids out until I get my shit together and tamed my insecurities

Churchill said 4 is the right number. "One for mommy, one for daddy, one for accidents, and one for increase."

Having 3 all in one go! ☺

I would like to warn to newer parents that if you intend to have more than one child, be wary if one starts to exhibit toxic behavior towards the other. Though what Jordan mentioned in this video is true, it can of course have the opposite effect when a toxic personality is thrown into the mix. My older sister is a Malignant Narcissist, and you can probably imagine it didn't do much good for my social development.

I want 5. The future Mrs. wants 5. Pretty excited. Should be a grand ol time.

I have 2 siblings; which seems the most common number In my social groups. For the chronicling of actual events having a third party seems to keep the whole trio more honest and in my opinion keep things within a set of boundaries, so to speak.

Kids are massively expensive. That being said, my parents have three, and there's such a vast difference in age between us that we have little in common and I don't feel close to them. So I feel in many ways like an only.

Four ankle biters is perfect. One for each ankle.

In order to have more than one child you have to have a big enough heart to share that love. I can’t. I give all my love to my one son. It’s really hard for me and my pregnancy and after pregnancy was absolutely horrific. If I could I would have one or two more. But I can’t afford, mentally physically or literally to do so. Am happily married with a son.

Thanks for this!

When you work in early childhood, you can spot the only child in a heartbeat. It’s usually the child that has a harder time sharing toys and attention. They want to be 1st for everything too and often have meltdowns if they are not. In big families, the dynamics can vary. The last kid of a big family can bully the younger friends the way the older siblings bully them at home, is usually more delayed in expressive language and misbehave to seek attention from the caregivers. The parents are sometimes older and tired and the oldest, especially if it’s a girl, often ends up doing most of the caregiving and it shows. The ones in the middle can feel invisible and can have learning or health issues that are overlooked.

I’m an only child, I grew up in a tiny family, I realised at an older age just how weird I was, I want children but will never have only 1 it’s cruel on the child

My mother always says "one is less, two is to much"

my dad has 7 siblings, they actually don’t get along because of inheritance problems, quite common in India and around the world I suppose. So among these kids the 2 females weren’t educated due to economic constraints, 2 males dropped out of school, 2 males graduated but couldn’t have successful careers, 2 males graduated and had a successful and stable career (my dad is in this category) Similarly my granny had 7 siblings - 3 females uneducated, 2 males graduated with a stable career, 1 male dropped out, 2 males graduated but no good career. Pls check how much resources you have and then reproduce accordingly. This is an unfair world and sometimes a cruel world too, so be careful with your decisions, sometimes your child may need an additional push from your side and giving that push at the right time can change their life entirely.

I only want to have children if i can do it like frogs, have 5000 at once and then abandon them all