So...You Gonna Have Another One?

I have gotten this question so much it is ridiculous. At times people were asking me if we were going to have another baby mere days after we had Callie. Now, I want you to imagine your most excruciatingly painful experience. Would you want to do it again? Say you broke your leg. Would someone come up to you and say "Hey, don't you want to break the other one? You wouldn't want your right leg to feel left out would you?" Ok, so kind of a ridiculous analogy but there really isn't a good one that is equivalent.
It is quite fascinating to hear how people ask the question. Some people are simply curious. I don't begrudge an innocent question like that. But some seem to be looking for vindication of THEIR own decisions.
We haven't really started getting the responses like "Why would you do that to your daughter?" yet. But I'm sure if we do decide to only have one we will start to get those kinds of responses.
On days like today, I only want one child. But other days I think it might be good to have a brother or sister for Callie. We aren't locked into either decision yet.
Time Magazine ran an interesting article last week on the Only Child Myth. Bill and I have been talking about how we imagine more people from our generation will likely choose to only have one child than in previous generations. For one thing, we are having kids much later in life than our parents and grandparents did. Also, the economy has to play a role as well. The Department of Agriculture estimates that it costs an average of $286,000 for one child in the US and that is before college.
We have several friends that have decided to only have one child. Some had difficult pregnancies/births and don't want to go through it again. Others feel that one child supports the lifestyle they want for their family better.
I imagine to some respect the grass is always greener. If you have one child, you probably wonder what it would've been like with 2 or 3. If you have more than one, you probably wonder if just having one would be easier.
I know the stereotypes. Only children are selfish, spoiled brats who are socially inept. But the recent research doesn't support those ideas anymore. There are also "nicer" aspects of the stereotype: only children having higher IQs because the parents have more time to spend on the one child in terms of homework and the like.
The nice thing about having siblings is it teaches conflict resolution and sharing in a self contained unit. Obviously, only children will still learn these values, it just has to come from outside your house through playdates and peers rather than siblings.
We are nowhere near even making these types of decisions, just an interesting topic to explore...Wonder what other people's ideas/experiences are like...Comment?

But I suppose when you really get down to it, it is no one's business what we decide to do with our family structure. I know it won't keep people from asking, but I will try to remember that if/when we make any decisions about how big our family should be, it is simply up to us and us alone. But because I know myself, I know I will probably continue to be bothered by this line of questioning, just like I got annoyed when it seemed like the second the ink was dry on our marriage license we (I) were getting hounded about when ,not if, we were gonna have kids. At least for the time being the question is if, not necessarily when:)