How many years between oldest and youngest?

[amphibology29]

DH and I don't have a big family yet, but we're hoping/planning for one. We were talking today about how old DS would be when we'd stop. DH and I both think that once DS is 12 or 13 we probably won't have any more after that, simply because we worry about the age gap between oldest and youngest seeming like they're from two different families. Especially since DS is 4+ years older than DD and we won't wait that long between future children (we'd like to have at least two more, probably three or four). But I'm no expert on huge age gaps, since my brother is only 4 years older than me, and DH is only 7 years older than his youngest sibling. So how much of an age gap is there between your oldest and youngest, and what are your thoughts on it?

[Sam25!]

I only have four children right now. My oldest will be 6 in another month, and the baby is 8 mos. We are planning have trying to have another when the baby is 2 or 2 and a half. There are 3 years between my oldest and the twins, and only 20 mos between the twins and the baby. I like to keep them at between 2-3 years apart. I think by the time my oldest is 10-12 we will be done. 10 years to me is a big gap between oldest and youngest.

[ktmelody]

My oldest is 11 1/2 and my youngest is 22 months. So just about 9 1/2 years apart. :goodvibes:

My others are 10 1/2, 5, and 3.

[Shainamom]

Our oldest is 13 and our youngest is 6 months. The 13 year old made the comment that she will be going to collage when DS is 6. I didn't feel like the age gap was that big but when she put it like that it made the gap feel huge.

There is an 18 year difference between my oldest and youngest sisters but that is from a combined family.

ETA: the age gap helps with babysitting though :)

[Leininger27]

My oldest will be 9 in a couple weeks. My youngest is almost 6 weeks and I *think* we are now done.

[mommyfrog]

14 years. My mom had 17 years between her oldest and youngest (8 kids)and my sister has 20 years between hers(5kids).

ETA: My oldest told me last night I need to have one more, a girl. Crazy kid!!

[TestifyToLove]

My oldest is 12.5 now and my youngest is 5 weeks. We're open to the idea there might be one more below the baby in the future. But, mostly we think we'll adopt within the gap of 4 years between our younger 6 yo and our 2 year old toddler. Above the younger 6 yo is closed to adding children at this point. Something about putting 4 children within 21 months span just exhausts me!

[Hoping4aPrincess]

I am 19 years older than my youngest sister, 17 years older than my next youngest and three years older than my brother. It's probably not as big of an issue as most people think. We definitely have a different relationship than most siblings, but I wouldn't say we aren't as close, KWIM? Right now, my sisters are very young and I expect that they will actually be closer to my children. But, it has worked out well for our family and I really couldn't imagine life without them. My brother (14 and 16 years older than our sisters) had a harder time with it as he was going through a very selfish, self-centered stage and would be upset when he was unable to do something that he wanted to do because of the youngest two.

[jessicalee]

12 yrs & 2 weeks differance
my oldest will be 14 on the 3rd of feb and my youngest will be 2 on the 20th of feb
when we decided that 4 kiddos was enough we also realized we could have grandbabies in about 10 yrs

[WhatWasIThinking]

12 years almost to the dot! We are thinking og having another baby when our youngest is 5 , so then the age gap will be 17 years.

I am 17 years older than my littliest brother and we have a great relationship!

[Sakari]

I'm 8 years older than my sister and I think it's been fine. I loved having her as a real live doll when I was little! I joke that she had 3 parents, though. AND, she says she'd never have the gap that far apart for her kids because she was so young when I went to college that she doesn't know me as well as she could have. (there's no kids in between us, tho...)

[DesertMomma]

I only have 5 kids and probably not going to have more... but my oldest is 8.5 years older than my youngest :)

[TwinsMake9]

My oldest is almost 18 and the youngest 2 are almost 18 months. We also have 11 kids in total. My older ones love the little ones and my oldest will go to college next year and shes very close to them and is having a hard time realizing shes going to be missing all the stuff they do.

[taximom]

My oldest will be 21 in March and my youngest turned 2 in Sept. So I guess that is a little over 18 years.

[BlsdMama]

It changes about every 18 months! :thumbsup:

Oldest DD is almost 13.
Planned gap of 3 years
Oldest DS is almost 10
DD (would be 8 on February 14. Lived 2/14/01-2/26/01 Preemie)
DD - Just turned 7 (10.5 month gap between these two)
DD - 5 on Jan 4th
DS - 4 on Dec. 28 - they're both the same age for a week. :)
DD - 2.5
DD - 8 months

So, right now our oldest was 12.5 when our youngest was born. But, I doubt Sarah is our last, so we'll see.:mrgreen:

[BlsdMama]

Our oldest (almost 13) looks a lot older though. She's very curvy for a little girl and being oldest, she's pretty motherly. So, we've gotten a couple of comments that go something like this:

"Are they all yours?"
"Yup."
"Even that one?"

Sigh. That's a little annoying. But, liveable. :thumbsup:

[mom_of_4]

My oldest is almost 20 and my youngest will be 5 this year. The older two are "technically" my step-daughters but I raised them as my own.

[mamato5angels]

My oldest will almost 18.5 when the youngest is born. This is our 6th but we are a blended family (yours mine and ours).
ODD is 18 will be 19 in Sept
ODS is 16 will be 17 in June
DD is 15 will be 16 in May
DD is 13 (Just turned in Dec.)
DS is 5 will be 6 in May
Baby could be born this weekend but most likely around the 12th of Feb.

It was funny with the older 4 when I would bgo into a store I would always get asked if they were alllll mine (like it was a bad thing) I would always smile and say yup the more the merrier!

[caricandothis]

My oldest will almost be 14 when the baby is born in April/May. He thinks nothing of having more siblings, he loves babies. Its a little nerve-wracking at times having kids at so many different stages of life (oldest boy is going thru puberty, youngest boy is PLing :giggle:) but I love it and wouldnt want it any other way.

DS1 7/1/95
DD1 8/1/99 (4 yrs 1 mo btwn them)
DD2 9/7/03 (4 yrs 1 mo 6 d btwn them)
DS2 10/7/06 (3 yrs 1 mo btwn them)
DD3 EDD April/Mayish 09, will be approx 2.5 yrs btwn her/DS2

[TwinKristi]

My oldest (twins) are 11.5 right now and my youngest is 3. So I guess it's about 8.5 yrs?? They were in 3rd grade when I had him. They're going to be starting 7th grade this fall and we've been TTC for a few mos but might take a few mos off here soon to avoid the holiday b-day or same months with our other kids. Selfish I know but I want a summer baby!! So anyway, if we succeed there could be up to 13yr between our oldest and youngest.

[slingmama4]

My oldest will be 11 when baby #5 is born this summer. He enjoys helping them and especially teaching them. Our other Dc are 8.5, 4.5, and 2 and then baby #5 here soon. We are open to more.

My sister is 7 yrs older than me. We were the only girls growing up (the oldest and the baby) and we had to share a room. She was so mean to me and admits that she couldn't stand me, but now we are the best of friends and talk 10x's a day (we live across the USA from one another).

[boomer]

I only have 4 children and the age gap between the oldest and youngest is 9 years, 1 month. Those two kids are very, very close. Alisa thinks she is Asher's mother and Asher runs to her when he doesn't get his way with me. :)

[FaeryGnomeHome]

7 1/2years between my oldest and youngest. there are 3 all together.

[FaeryGnomeHome]

I only have 4 children and the age gap between the oldest and youngest is 9 years, 1 month. Those two kids are very, very close. Alisa thinks she is Asher's mother and Asher runs to her when he doesn't get his way with me. :)

oh my goodness, sara(4) does that with Mady(8):giggle:

[karine77]

I love the age gap....there is something so precious about a teen playing with his or her baby sibling. Mine are 14-10-3-18 months and the relationship between them all is awesome. Plus, the bigger kids help out alot with the younger ones...I wouldn't do it any other way. I even wished I would of waited a little before I popped out the last one. I found it to be EXHAUSTING having two kids that close in age.

[mdmickey]

My oldest is 2o yrs old and my youngest is 3 months:) Not planned that way but a blessing:)

[karcol]

My oldest will be 10 in May and I am due in June. They will be 10 years and 1 month and some days apart. He is such a big help with my 13 month old.

[jackyl08]

I am the oldest of 6. There is ten years and 12 days between me and my brother, with four girls in between. I babysat a lot. They would run to me when mom wouldn't give them something and to this day, they will turn to me if they aren't sure what to do or are in a crisis or something. My brother was pretty close to me because about 6mths or so after he was born, my mom got really sick and I had to help a lot. My dad is a farmer and wasn't always home at a certain time. She had a hysterectomy when my brother was 10mths and I was off the hook(well, kinda! LOL!). We are all pretty close now. We are 29, 27, 25, 23, 21 and 19.

[mom2piddle]

oldest is 10 1/2, youngest is 1

[MamaTo2Boys1Girl]

my oldest will be 4 in March and my youngest will be one in February. I only have 3 though.

gosh these oldest to youngest gaps seem so huge! I cannot imagine getting out of the baby stage and into the school stage and wanting to do it over again...

[mammaof??]

My oldest is 7 and my youngest two were born Jan 20th. You can see in my siggy...

[rawheid]

DH is from a large family (there's 9 boys total). He's 22 years older than his youngest brother. It's hard since the older half of the family are like parents to the youngest 3. Plus there is only 5 years between the youngest boy and the first grandchild.

DH is good friends with the older half of his family and doesn't know the younger half.

For us I think 4 kids will be our top # with 2-2.5 years between in a perfect world.

[Rollins4]

4 yrs.

[Blue Zoo]

There will be 19 1/2 years between the oldest & youngest.

[fourboys]

There is 17 1/2 years between my oldest and youngest. I think there are pro's and con's about any spacing. I love having extra hands and tall people to help.

[teleana22]

right now there is 12 yrs between my oldest and youngest but we want at least one more in a few years. i have worried about my oldest one going off to college and not being as close to any new babies, but they are all 4 so close right now. and he really adores his baby brother and youngest sister, there is none of the arguing/teasing/annoying each other that there is w/ just my oldest 2. and teh way my dd adores her big brother is amazingly sweet. they are 7 yrs apart and although they don't have so much a friend/sibling relationship they have a completely awesome relationship. i know he will always be looking out for her, and she will always look up to him which will give him standards to live up to. my SO is the youngest of 8 and there is 16 yrs between him and his oldest brother, but they are still all very close, i always say we are like the in the middle couple (not in a bad way) because we hang out w/ the old people (his brothers and their wifes) and with the couples more our age, which are actually his neices and nephews.

Teleana

[MangoMommy]

I'll have 8 yrs between the oldest and the youngest, with 1 inbetween. I know that's not a big family LOL but who knows what the future holds. :)

I came from a family of 4 with 9 yrs between oldest and youngest.

[momof6plus3]

23 years, we are a blended family. My stepsons have children older than my triplets.

My siblings were 18,16 and 10 when I was born. We are very close and I am extremely close to my nieces who are only 3 and 5 yrs younger than me.

[heluvsme]

My oldest is 25 and my youngest is 2. They really don't have a lot of interaction, which is sad (my oldest is in his own little world right now)~but that wouldn't stop me from having children who are far apart in age. My 2yo has a 4, 6, and 8yo to play with and he is happy :mrgreen:

[jessica_momof6]

my oldest is 13, the youngest is 1.

they are 13, 11, 10, 8, 6, 4, 1. we have a lot of interaction still. the hardest part is that our youngest is 1..he is a boy. and the next boy up from him is my 10 year old..so there is 9 years between the youngest boys. that is hard. but they still play together :)

[chelleym]

There is 19years 9 months between my oldest and youngest. The age gap certainly wasn't planned, but it works out well.

Now I'm just waiting for grand babies to get my baby fill :giggle:

[momof7]

21 yrs--my oldest is now 27 & my youngest is 6. I have 7 children.

[Jem*Jam Customs]

Our oldest is 14 and will be turning 15 a few months after the baby is born.

[aiyana4969]

mine are ages 5, almost 4, 14 months and in the oven. My little bro was a surprise. I'm the oldest and he's 8 yrs and 1 day younger than me. i pratically raised him. He'll graduate HS on his b-day this year and enters the navy a month later. My sis is 2.5 yrs younger and we never really got along. I don't think it's so much age gap as it is personalities as to how "sibling like" they feel toward each other.

[brigadoon]

I will have 3 in August and the age difference will be almost 7 years exactly. We want to have a big family, so we're not sure when or if we "plan" to stop. We figure when God wants us to stop growing our family, he'll make it obvious:)

[bobandjess99]

Well, we are a vlended family, but the oldest is 25 years old and the baby is 1. Sort of a big range, lol.
The oldest 2 are out of the house, married, with kids of their own ( ages 25 and 23) the next grouping are 3 boys ages 16, 12 and 11, all in junior high/high school stage of life, and the "babies" are 4 and 1......so ya.....

[3LittleC's]

I have 3 - there is 20 months age differance between the twins and the youngest

[MarinesFamily5]

3 years and 30 days.... but we only have 3 kids lol

[ZooCrew10]

we have a total of 9, the oldest (20) doesn't live with us. The oldest at home is 16, the youngest is 17 months. We're finished having children.

[vtmama]

I have 5 kids. Oldest is 13.5, youngest is 1.5, so I guess that would be a twelve year span:) It is great to watch the older kids interact with the younger ones. I love having a big family!!

[3boys_mom]

Currently my oldest is 6 yo, middle is 3 yo, and youngest is 14 mos. We would like to add more to our family.

[5IrishBabes]

Our oldest and youngest are almost 6 1/2 years apart and we have 5 kids.
1 & 2 are 21 mnths apart
2 & 3 are almost 2 1/2 years apart
3 & 4 are 10 1/2 mnths apart
4 & 5 are 16 mnths apart
We lost twins in between 2 and 3 hence the larger gap. As close as they are I wish they were a little closer sometimes. lol I love this age gap. I think if I were close to getting out of baby stages and had anothe I would be a little bummed.

[Poohb10454]

We are expecting our 4th and our oldest is 5. He will be 6 one month after baby is due. This will be our last

[luvmybaby333]

I have two girls. They are 5 years and 2.5 months apart.

[Blue Zoo]

We have 5 children (soon to be 6).

Their ages are:

19
15
13
5
3
# 6 is due tomorrow (March 18). :goodvibes:

So there will be 19 years difference between the oldest & youngest.

[mom2~3offspring]

My oldest will almost be 8 when this 4th babys born. I have a 2001,2005,2007,2009 Age group :) we are done

[Mamatoabunch]

When our 10th is born this August, 15 years between two oldest and youngest.

Most of mine are close to a 2 year gap, one spacing w/ a 3 year gap. I preferred the 2 year gap, but ask me again in August, that gap will be 12 konths, LOL.

[mommyshanti]

i have 3 kids 9,4,7m. wouldve like them closer but u cant control these things in life:goodvibes:

[sunnygirlmomof6]

My oldest is 9 and youngest is almost 2, and I am due in Nov. with number 6. Age does not seem to be a big deal to me. We get them when God gives them, and it seems to work out right!

[Treighsie]

My oldest and youngest are 11.5 years apart

[bean3]

With the collective kids, the oldest is 44 (I think) with the youngest turning 2, so about 42 years.

Sorry, no multiples, but thought y'all would get a chuckle out of it. :)

[momatomany]

Oldest is 21 and youngest is 5 weeks. They have 8 other siblings between them.

Bean3 - that is neat age span! Hehee!

[chanelbarbie]

My oldest is 15 and my youngest is 10 days old.

[grnmomma]

My oldest is 13 and the youngest is 6 months with a 5 year old thrown in the middle!

[zonapellucida]

My eldest is 19, youngest is 7 months :)

momtomany :)

bean that is a neat span!

so many big families!!!!

[Monkeytaylz]

My oldest daughter will be 23 years and 8 months old when her baby brother is born in June/July!! My little guy is already an uncle and he is not even born yet!!

[beckscooper]

There is 17 years between my oldest and youngest. My kids ages go like this:

Christopher 19 (20 in Aug)
Alexandre 15 (16 in Aug)
Kassidy 4 (5 in May)
Kathleen 2 (3 in Sept)

The first two boys were from a previous marriage and the two girls are from my current marriage. Although I would have loved to have them close together it wasn't in the cards. I do love the fact that the two boys can watch the girls for short periods of times if we need to run out and do errands or on the off chance get to go to a movie.

The boys love the girls and are very protective of them. The only thing I don't like is that the 15 year old is always telling me how to parent *sigh* just wait until he has kids of his own :) many many many years from now!

[ivparker]

I will soon have my 5th, and my oldest would just turn 5 the month before she is born, so 5 years apart.

[pbresolin]

My oldest is almost 18 and then DS is 3 and DD is 16 mo.

[CrazedChris]

My oldest will be 15.5 yrs old when the new one arrives. :)

[mom2piddle]

my oldest is almost 11 and the baby is 15 mos old...there is a 10 yr age difference with 3 other kids in between....this does not include the other kids that are a part of our blended family :hugegrin:

[GirlyMama81]

Once baby Mia arrives there will be almost 9 years between her and my oldest, and we aren't done having babies. Trying for that elusive boy!

[TXmommy2be]

The difference between my oldest and due in May youngest will be four months shy of 16 years! Yikes!! I didn't plan it that way, but it took longer to find my prince charming (current DH) than I planned.

[lakemom]

Well mine are 21y3mo apart. We have 6 and they are 23, 20, 16.5, 14, 7 and 2. And my oldest and I are 21y4mo apart. We know that the oldest and youngest will never be "playmates" but the little ones really keep us grounded in what's important in life.