How do you know if you are ready to have another child?
We have come up with 7 ways for you to determine if bringing forth another baby is what you should be considering or in the next unknown number of years.
How to tell if you’re truly ready?
Your answers to these 7 questions will tell you if you should start baby shopping or giving out your current baby gears to people you may or may not know.
1. How Does Your Spouse Feel About Another Baby?
The thought of welcoming another baby cannot go far if you and your partner do not co-jointly agree that you’re ready for another child. The process of making a baby involves him, as well as the duties of taking care of one.
Besides, a marriage can feel strained if your spouse’s head and heart aren’t in the same place as yours.
It might not be the best move to try to please him by agreeing to a decision you don’t feel good about or demanding a baby because you feel you are ready, yourself. It is best you’re both on the same page.
Have a conversation on why you think you do or don’t want another child, and see if you can come up with a compromise.
This could be in the form of setting a date in a year or two when you’ll start trying to conceive, proposing to revisit the conversation in a few months or so.
The more honest you both are and the more you communicate, the easier it will be for you to tell if you’re ready for another child.
2. Do You Have Confidence In Your Abilities?
Does the thought of having another infant in the house scare you or excite you? Do you have confidence in your abilities to parent another child in addition to the present number you have right now?
Do you think that adding another one at this time could be doable, or at least willing to give it another shot, open to learning as you go? the truth of you being ready for another child lies in your answers to the above questions.
3. Has Baby Fever Kicked In Yet?
Have you in recent times seen a pregnant woman and felt that ‘pang’ to have such an experience too?
Is it true that there’s suddenly a lot of babies/pregnant women around you everywhere you go?
Do you see yourself drawn to your loved one’s babies, so much do you start toying with the thoughts of taking them home with you?
Well, there go; right there is your answer whether or not you’re ready for another child.
4. Time For Another Sibling, Maybe?
Another really easy way to know if you’re ready for another child is when the desire to give your child a sibling finally outweighs all other apprehensions.
For some, it would take them seeing their young one start to develop friendships they’d start wishing that they formed that sort of close bond with a brother or sister.
Whatever yours may be, when the urge to give your child a sibling kicks in, then you know that you’re ready for another child.
5. Can Your Current Lifestyle Accommodate It?
Are you a career mum? Is your current lifestyle one where you have to wake up early and go to bed near midnight? Does your current lifestyle feature a lot of traveling?
Are you okay with the fact that when a new baby comes along, you’d be forced to make a number of lifestyle changes, where getting up and going somewhere isn’t as easy as you were having it?
Although many of the changes will be subtle, considering you’re not a first-time mum, they’re still worth considering.
6. Can You Bear The Financial Implications?
Are you and your spouse in a good spot financially?
After you factor in the medical bills, the cost of baby food, clothes, and accessories, daycare, etc. Do you think that you’re financially ready?
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Are you in a good place in our careers? Are you certain beyond all reasonable doubt that you can afford an addition to the family as it is?
7. What Does Your Family Plan Say?
Sometimes there isn’t a particular thing that has to happen to tell you that you’re ready for another child. It could just be the fact that you already agreed to space your children in a certain way; coupled with a general feeling like the time is right.
If you and your spouse had always wanted your kids to be close together in age—perhaps two years apart, and your baby is a little above a year now, that’s all the sign you need to know that you’re ready for another child.
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