Thoughts on kids and family

I had a thought today about kids and my family as a whole.

I'm what some call child-free. That is to say, I don't want kids, nor does my husband. So we never had them. It hasn't always been the easiest of choices to stick to, but I do think it was the right one for us.

Which meant that until my niece was born two years ago, there were no grandkids/great-grandkids in the family, as it's just my sister and me in our immediate family, and we're the oldest of the grandkids on one side, and the only grandkids on the other.

Lately, because of my family tree work, I had come to realize that this wasn't a short-term problem in our family--at least, on the branch where we're the only grandkids, where few if any of the siblings of my ancestors had kids for one reason or another. I'd always thought my aunt and myself were the only ones who'd not really wanted kids, but now I think it's a longer-term issue than that.

I'm one of two grandkids on that side, and my mom was one of four siblings, but she was the only one who had kids. Her father only had one sibling who died in the war, and their father had two brothers, one of which I have no marriage record for, and the other of whom I do, but no kids. On my grandfather's mother's side, my great-grandmother had six siblings, only one of which had any children.

Not really certain what it all means, but it does help me feel a bit better about my choice. That it's not just me, but part of the overall family tree.

It is a bit hard on the grandmothers, though. I know my mother's mom always wanted a lot of grandkids, and was rather disappointed that she only got the two of us. And I also feel bad that mom had to wait so long for my niece. But it does mean that she's just that much more precious to all of us.

Today, these thoughts also lead me to the realization that our family just isn't very baby-friendly. I was the first-born grandkid, and my sister and I are 6 1/2 years apart, and the next grandkid wasn't born for five more years or so. His brother came along a few years later, but then we had to wait five more years before the final two grandkids were born. We're all so incredibly stretched out over time that only one family at a time has had young kids.

Until now. With my two-year-old niece and my cousin's newborn son, suddenly we have two babies in the family. Makes me very curious as to how Christmas will go this year. I have to say, though, I am looking forward to it.