How do you decide when enough is enough?

All of my life I wanted 4-6 kids. Somewhere along the way I settled on the number 5. It really depends on which family I'm playing. The characters from the books in my siggie, my O/C was 1 of 5 kids. My O/C had 5, ultimately although they're not fully mentioned until the Epilogue. Her oldest brother had 1 at the time my story begins and her next older brother was just getting married. Second brother is my singer Sim. He was a struggling musician in the book and unmarried at that time. When I played him in Sims3, he ultimately ended up with 5. Just feels like a right number to me.

As for my other save, it's tons more. But then again it's my Ancestral save and they had babies, lots of them back in the 18th century colonial America. My own 6th great-grandfather was the father of 18 altogether. This was between two wives (and no, he didn't have them at the same time. My 6th great-grandmother passed away after her tenth child.) He married again, because that's what a man did in that time frame. He had ten children ranging from newborn up to 17 years old. They needed a mother, at least the little ones did. So, I fill up the households in that game save.

If you're truly unable to decide, you could always roll the dice to set how many a certain household would have. If that gives you more than you can handle, you can always take the family into cas.fulleditmode and delete a few. This won't cause your Sims any pain, I've discovered. I use MCCC and once upon a time we could have more than 8 on a lot. But, you were cautioned not to take the family into CAS, as normal. The number beyond 8 Sims would be removed instantly. I forgot this once and lost three toddlers. Family wasn't in mourning — at all. I'm the only one who was troubled by it!

I hope this has helped you.

Usually 2-4. I rarely do 1, but that's just because I have siblings and wouldn't trade it for anything.

Three is most common because it'll fulfill the big happy family aspiration, and I can have a good variety of people to play. However, with both parents, some may feel that five is too many people. If I were you I'd take into consideration a few things to help you decide:

1. Aspirations and number of kids you may need to fulfill them
2. How many people you like to play in a household
3. House space: if you don't mind building or moving you can have more kids. If you don't want to do either, then limit the number of kids.
4. How many really young kids you want at once. If you're up for the challenge, have a few kids in a row. If it's too stressful have one or two spaced apart. This way as they age you can decide if you want to add to the family or if you feel they're at a good number.

I usually let my sims decide. Any time they get the whim to have a baby I let them try for one. They usually have as many children as they want until there isn't any room in the house or they get too old.

Typically, I don't play with kids because I find the whole concept stressful. It takes away time and focus from the parents whom I give the most attention since they stick with me and never age. My couple has had many kids though over the time, but the fun quickly dissipates for me and I either delete them or move them out if they are grown up. They've had, I think, three or four at the same time at most. So that is my limit, I guess.

Probably 4 in a household is a nice number, but unfortunately the game has a sense of humor. Currently my loner Tristan, who used to be socially awkward is now the father of 4 children, 3 vamps and 1 normal sim...guess he got over his shyness, lol. With 5 in the house, I found it's not so bad, but of course, now they are all teens. :D

I used to avoid kids like the plague, couldn't see what the attraction is, but I'm coming along nicely. I still have my couples and singles, one of whom probably won't be getting married, but she will have animals. I'm like Reg, I like diversity.

I usually intend two, but aliens tend to insist my dude have at least four.

(I don't actually mind this, if I did I'd reset him when he's getting abducted. :P)

I play long life rotational & had a bad habit of always maxing out the households (two parents, six kids). I was almost on my way to doing that with my newer save I'm playing now. Then today at work it occurred to me, each rotation is four sim weeks, or 1 "year" (4 seasons), so I decided they can have as many children as they like in the first "year" of their marriage/relationship, but then that's it. The first family I played had three children, my current household has two, with about a week & a half on their current rotation. Abduction children will be the exception. We'll see how it works out, I can't seem to say no when they roll a try for baby wish.

When the heir is born I'm done normally. I go into CAS real quick to check what the kids look like as grown ups.

I’d say 3 kids. It used to be 2, but my sims tend to have twins a lot, making them have 3 kids in 2 births.

It depends for me on the couple and what their career/aspirations are. If my couple are low on money and it will take them a while to build up to a solid career, usually 1-2 kids is more than enough. However, if they're good on money and have a well-paying job they'll stick with, I might go for 3-4.