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What a shame, back in the day people used to have odd numbers of children.
by cncrnd 8y ago
What a shame, back in the day people used to have odd numbers of children.
- craftyguy 8y agoInterestingly enough, both of my parents came from families with even numbers of children, and it was a lot. BTW, 1 is also odd, so I'm not sure if you're just trying to say "used to have 3 children" or literally an odd number (1, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 23, etc)
- war1025 8y agoI think it was supposed to be a joke about how there is only a middle child if there is an odd number of children.
- Fnoord 8y agoThat's a matter of perception. The way I see it, every child who is not either the youngest or the oldest is the/a middle child. With 3, that's #2. With 4, that's #2 and #3. With 5, that's #2 and #3 and #4. Though usually the context is that parents have 3 children because that's the most common version of having more than 2 children. When I look at people who I know and their families, I can report that the middle child always appear to be self-centered, egocentric. As if they lacked love in their youth they're continuously trying to make up for the rest of their life. Oh, and they have twisted ways of justifying that behaviour.
- greglindahl 8y agoAmusingly, both my mom and her sister had 3 children because their parents had 2. They were annoyed because one of them was "daddy's child" and one was "mommy's child" and they figured that having 3 each would prevent that. Numerology matters. They both did end up having 3 kids, and I can report that I think the problem they thought they were preventing didn't happen. Win!
- EGreg 8y agoCan you describe the dynamics that did occur? Were the kids happier overall when there were 3 of them than 2? I know it’s tough to reduce everything to that one factor but still curious.
- Fnoord 8y ago> I know it’s tough to reduce everything to that one factor Yes, that's the whole problem with this discusion. It isn't scientific, lots of anecdata, and correlation does not imply causation.