large age gap

Do you have kids with a large age gap in between? OVER 5 years, like...6+ years apart.

How is it? Do you regret it? Does your older enjoy the role of "helper", or hate the thought of having a little brother or sister they have to share time with? Do YOU enjoy the age gap?

my son and daughter are 3 1/2 years apart, but their new brother will be 8 and 5 years younger than his older siblings. He's due on May 17th, so I'm not sure exactly. However, knowing my kids, I know I made the right choice for all of us.

I like that my kids are old enough to help out and will be there when their brother is older and has things he doesn't want to come to mom and dad about.

We're TTC now, and my daughter will be 17ish if we end up being successful.

There is 7 years between me and my middle brother, and 13 years between me and my youngest brother.

I never really had an issue with the age gap and we were all close growing up.

My kids are really close together but when I was 15 and my brother was 12 my mom had another baby. As bad as it sounds I still resent her for it. :/

<blockquote><b>Quoting Devil Duckie:</b>" my son and daughter are 3 1/2 years apart, but their new brother will be 8 and 5 years younger than his ... [snip!] ... enough to help out and will be there when their brother is older and has things he doesn't want to come to mom and dad about. "</blockquote>




I have almost exactly the same spacing as you.
I love it. My 8 yr old is old enough to actually be helpful, and the 5 yr old is still young enough that he likes to play with the baby but is old enough that he understands not to be too rough. I also love the age gap bc the older boys are old enough to understand that sometimes mommy has to care for the baby and they need to wait.

It is seeming like it will be that way since DD turns 4 this summer. I don't like it at all.

I was never close to my sister who was 7 years older than me and I am more of an aunt figure to my sister that is 13 years younger than me. I never wanted to do that to my kids.

My one brother is 7 years older, and my other is 2 years older. I've never been close to the older, and it took like 20 years to get close to my other brother. I'm nervous about the age gap.

Quoting Juliette:" My kids are really close together but when I was 15 and my brother was 12 my mom had another baby. As bad as it sounds I still resent her for it. :/"

May I ask why?

My brother is 8.5 urs younger than me. I loved being A big sister and helped all the time. My parents treated him easy diff though cause when he was in the cute kid stage I was in the bitchy teenager stage. So I've always been seen as the bad one   and even today he's 16 and I'm 25 and I get tested like chopped liver and the world revolves around him.

Quoting ~~My Pet Wussy~~:" <blockquote><b>Quoting Devil Duckie:</b>" my son and daughter are 3 1/2 years apart, ... [snip!] ... the age gap bc the older boys are old enough to understand that sometimes mommy has to care for the baby and they need to wait."

Spiffy! My husband wasn't so sure. He has a sister who's 5 1/2 years younger than him, and he says he didn't really connect with her until they were older.

Elliot and Piper are inseparable and I know Ollie will be welcomed w/open arms and tons of kisses.

My kids are close in age, but I'm the younger half of a large age gap sibling pair. My sister and I are thirteen years apart, and we're closer than most siblings I know. We shared a room from the ages of 1 and 14 to 5 and 18 and we had a blast. When she left home I spent weekends at her apartment because we missed each other. As adults the gap feels much smaller and we're still able to share childhood memories and the bond two people share when they dealt with the same parents growing up. I know my mom actually quite enjoyed it too, she tells us all the time how happy she was with how it all played out. Now of course for every close pair of large age gap siblings there are bound to be another pair that hate each other, the same can be said for any sibling groupings. But for us it really worked out. My mother, sister and I are all extremely close, regardless of unconventional age spacing.

My Dh is the second oldest of 10 kids with a 8 year age gap between his brother that was born right after him and his sister that was born after that. He hates it. He resents the fact he never got a childhood because him and his older sister were always busy helping with the younger kids. And to be honest they all pretty much raised each other (and still are because DH's youngest brother is only a year older than my oldest).

Quoting 1inpink2inblue:" My Dh is the second oldest of 10 kids with a 8 year age gap between his brother that was born right after ... [snip!] ... they all pretty much raised each other (and still are because DH's youngest brother is only a year older than my oldest)."

It sounds like that might be more of having too many kids and bad parenting more than an age gap thing. Just an outside perspective.

Quoting Devil Duckie:" It sounds like that might be more of having too many kids and bad parenting more than an age gap thing. Just an outside perspective. "

Maybe but had he been closer in age to his younger siblings he probably wouldn't have been responsible for them growing up.

Quoting 1inpink2inblue:" Maybe but had he been closer in age to his younger siblings he probably wouldn't have been responsible for them growing up."

exactly. that's where the bad parenting comes in.