I find it worse once you have one!
We had ours at 20 (yes, it was an accident) and have spent 5 years getting from student mother and minimum wage father to reasonably well earning, home owning mid 20s family. However, 5 years is way too much of a gap in some peoples opinions. I wouldn't have chosen a big age gap between kids prior to having our daughter but I'm not going to rush into having another simply to have a smaller age gap.
Once you have one they are fairly sure that there are no fertility problems so there's no consideration there!
As much as I hate trying to justify my family planning to people I detest when people say to our daughter "Mammy and Daddy will have to get you a brother or sister". Grrrrrrr.... She is 5 and (she thinks) she wants a sister/brother. It is cruel to put such a statement on the shoulders of a child and then me who has to explain why we are not getting a baby.
Anyway, when people say to me "you'll have to give her a sibling" or something along those lines, I always say "Once is a mistake, twice would be just plain stupid"(always out of earshot of the little one
) That shuts them up.
Don't get me wrong, I adore my daughter and we do plan on having another one (at least) in the next 5 years (all going well) but Mr. Ailbhe and I don't seem as bothered as other people (especially our parents
) about when we expand our family.