Other families—whether they include twins, a sprawling brood, or an only child—seem, from the outside, as if they were always meant to be that way. In truth, however, it takes a good deal of soul searching, not to mention good health and luck, to arrive at the number of children we choose to have. Now, perhaps more than ever, the choice to expand a family is a fraught one. There are practical concerns: It is estimated that it will cost a middle-income family up to $297,000 to raise one child to age 18. (And it's not as if the economy is exactly booming these days.) The process is also riddled with deep emotional questions: We often try to replicate—or escape—the family traditions we've inherited while also creating our own version of a family going forward.
Cookie asked four mothers to explore their own decisions. From one woman's choice to forgo motherhood altogether to another's account of her raucous household of three kids (and a dog), these pieces illuminate both how singular and how universal the process of building a family can be.
Next Page: Having Zero Children
