How do you decide when enough is enough?

@Mindsimscreate thanks! That sim I was talking about actually just had her daughter Owen. I have decided that Owen will probably be her only kid and oddly enough, I am actually okay with that!

I usually aim for 2 max. Anything more than that and I become overwhelmed.

@GeniusSimmerGirl Of course :) What really changed my mind is when I realized I was fine with watching 4-9 children grow, but I was only fine with parenting 1-2. What I mean by this is watching 4-9 children grow up with C grades in school, no toddler skills when I’m actually obssesed with maxing them in order for max traits, no family moments (like vacations), no cute screenshots, no staying up late and building forts with their sibling (if they have one) while their parents are out for Friday date night, etc... there was just no reason for even bringing children into the world if they are all the same, monotonous copy of failure.

Every household of mine is different. Some may have one to two kids, others quite a handful. I think in my biggest household, they have nearly ten children.
I have so many households that I play, I couldn’t allow them all to be the same.

I feel like if I want to focus on the kids I have to limit it to two. I like three, but then one kid will get ignored so.

@Mindsimscreate You are so right! Having only one kid allowed me to work on Belllatrix's (Owen's mom) career, Owen's skills, and their personalities. Owen is now a teen and Bellatrix is now an elder but I am still having the most fun on TS4 that I've have in a while! I think Owen will try to have 2 kids, going along with my aim for this family line, which is to have no more than 3 kids per person. I still will have 4+ kids in my other families but this save has really been an eye-opener to new play styles. :p (you can find a link to the family tree here if you're interested)

I usually have a rough idea about how many children (if any) a couple will have. For me it all depends on the story, the characters and their personality and lifestyle. My couples usually have 1 - 3 children maximum as I think any more would make it less fun and mean some sims get kind of forgotten. The only household I'm not entirely sure on is my main one. They only have one daughter (now a toddler), who in the story was a fairy/changeling baby that was left on their doorstep as a 'gift'. They never intended to keep her, but became so attached they eventually decided to adopt her and are now a nice little supernatural family unit trying their best to be just any normal human family. I am still debating whether they should adopt an older son now with the wishing well. Everything works quite well with just one child as it allows me to devote lots of time to each sim, plus I play with ageing off. The parents are very different too - one being a good vampire who really wouldn't want the mess or stress of more children (although ironically he is the more 'maternal' of the two), and the other being a werewolf who has always wanted and would love a big happy family with lots of children. He might be able to persuade his vampire that they could give another supernatural child a normal, safe and loving home, but I'm not sure yet. Perhaps they should just adopt a furry son i.e. dog or cat instead? :)

@GeniusSimmerGirl Akira Kibo is in your family too? That surprised me because he’s involved in my family. My family is complicated because my sim, Gina Busby, was in a relationship with Mark Eggleston and had a child with him. He ended up cheating on her with Yuki Behr, and had a child with her as well! Yuki’s sister Candy had a child with Akira Kibo named Christopher. So are Christopher and Owen half siblings? ? Besides that, it was also an eye opener to me when I first tried a smaller family. Though my current family is quite jumbled, I consider it three families because they don’t all live together. My sim and her new husband had another child, so I am raising two kids right now. It’s just easier to handle. Also, if Owen is already a teenager, and she was just born the other day, how fast are you playing? I’m trying to find the right lifespan for me and am curious of what others play on.

@Mindsimscreate I play on a short lifespan, though I did play pretty much all day yesterday, so that probably has something to do with it as well. :D I use it because I get tired of the life stages before the sims are ready to age up otherwise. Your whole family situation sounds complicated! I don't do divorces and affairs and things like that because...well I'm not sure I just don't, however I think I may eventually try doing something like that in the Ambrose family.

For the first few generations normally 2-3 so the family grows quicker but in later generations I try to have less so that not the hole town is filled with my sims.