Blimey! 23! That's almost twice what my auntie has!

I agree with those of you who've said that you should only have kids you can afford to have, if we can only afford 2, then that's how many we'll have.

Growing up in a family of 6, we did get criticized as 'sponging' off the government, well, we didn't. My Dad worked full time to support us and although we were never rich, and went without fancy things, we had the things that mattered, food and clothes. I enjoyed have lots of brothers and sisters (most of the time).

2 seems to be the most common number amongst the answer so far, and in society in general it seems a regular number. I do get angry too with people already claiming £40,00+ for their broods and neither parents work and keep having more children just to claim...but that's perhaps where I should stop ranting. It gives big families a bad name.

Thanks for everyones input, it's really interesting to get to know where people come from and their views, interesting stuff!

Well i always wanted 3 two boys and a girl but as its taking us ages to get one i think we will have to stick to 2!

I have 5 children. Oldest two are boys then three girls. xx

I have three,Luke 18yrs,Lizzie 15 yrs and Tom 14 yrs,we only planned on having two,Tom was an accident,but a much loved one never the less

Both boys have been much easier than Lizzie the last two years with her have been a nightmare,but over the past few months she has been alot alot better,now I have Tom going through the stroppy teen stage

As for draining your bank balance I agree,I may as well give mine my cashpoint card

Can I just ask the few of you who mentioned sponging off benefits, do you not claim Child Benefit yourselves, non of you claim child tax credits?

Or are you lucky enough to be on a fantastic wage? Down in Cornwall where I live you are extremely lucky to be on anything higher than minimum wage. Some of us have no choice but to claim benefits.

I'd love to have two children, but I honestly have no idea if that will ever happen.
I have a relatively well paid, secure job as does my other half, but there is no way with a mortgage etc that we could afford children. Our house also isnt big enough and we cant afford to move....
Im nearly 30 so time is ticking!!
I have to be honest, it does get to me when I meet people who have never worked who have say 4-5 kids. They get numerous benefits and allowances and even moved to accomodate the growing family.
For me I cant even consider one child at the moment and yet others who know that benefits will increase according to how many little ones they have dont have the same considerations.

I havent got any kids, im only 20! But I want 3 kids, 2 girls and a boy, I also want my first preferably before Im 25

Agreed whole heartedly!

I have no kids (don't plan on having any) and don't claim any sort of benefits either. I'm not on a high paid job by any stretch of the imagination, but I work hard and usually always work more than 40 hours per week.

There is a choice in whether or not to have children. If I wanted children (which I don't), I couldn't have them as I couldn't afford to pay for them anyway and I'm not scrounging off the government to pay for them either.

You think the jobs are bad in Cornwall? They aren't much better in the West of Scotland either, I can tell you.