The Benefits of having a 3 Years Gap..

There are many parents who would wait till their child is 2 years old before planning to have a second one. Me too..but hehe..God has a better plan…I had mine arriving when the jie jie is almost 2 years old.

 

Lately while talking to some of my peers, we were discussing about what is the IDEAL gap year before having another child. Both my friend(who like myself had a second one before our first child turns two) and myself inevitably agreed totally to the 3 Year Gap.

 

Why? There are some obvious benefits whether is emotionally, physically as well as FINANCIALLY:

1. By the time your first child is 3 years old , he/she would be toilet-train so you won’t end up paying for two batch of diapers (unless you are using cloth diapers) like me
2. By the time the first hits 3, slowly he/she would be switching to growing up milk and would be taking less often, thus you save a bit on monthly spending on milk powder(and of course if you decided to breastfeed your child, this can again offset a lot more on your monthly baby milk powder expenditure)
3. Seems that 3-4 years old, the child earn to be a big brother/sister, thus less sibling rivalry, and the elder one can be trusted to keep an eye on the younger one which relieve a lot on you
4. I guess for those who opt to send their kids to childcare centre/ babysitter, they can save up a bit more on childcare services as baby cost a lot more for most babysitters.
5. From 1-3 years is the golden years you won’t want to miss each point of emotional and physical development  of your child, thus by having your second one later….you have more time and energy (it’s not so when you are heavily pregnant with a demanding two years old!) to guide them.
6. For mothers who had c-section, their body will have chance and time to recover fully, thus the chances of having VBAC(vaginal birth after c-section) is higher.
7. For mothers who planned to breastfeed their child to 2 years old, this would be another reason to plan for second one after two years, well of course there are moms who can handle tandem nursing, BUT, for working and pumping mom, this is a real challenge to be able to have enough supply for both child and her own health too.
8. What else..i think there are more..perhaps moms with more than one kid out there would like to give their views?

 

All comments are welcome!

 

By the way, these are just my own views…for those who have one coming (and your older child has not turned 2), don’t worry….like my case…I always believe, God will not send you a mission which you couldn’t handle!- I think there is a better quote ..I can’t recall the exact phrase but the meaning is there! So fret not…we can and we will survive with more than one child! Mom have amazing hidden POWER!

 

Cheers to all moms!