How many kids would you want to have if you had a choice?

How many kids would you want to have if you had a choice?

  • 1

    Votes: 1 1.6%

  • 2

    Votes: 16 26.2%

  • 3

    Votes: 31 50.8%

  • 4+

    Votes: 11 18.0%

  • None

    Votes: 2 3.3%
  • Total voters
    61
The one thing that makes me "homesick" in Hong Kong is thinking about the whole backyard for the kids to play in thing. I can handle being away from my family, I can handle living in a shoe box - but it's harder when it's my kid(s) living in a shoe box with no back yard and being away from family.

We currently only have 1, but we'd love to have at least 2 more... My baby was a really good baby, very easy - and even when she was only 6 months old, I was already wanting another one!! She's nearly 1 now and hopefully it won't be tooooo much longer before #2 comes along.

I'd also love to adopt as well - my husband (Chinese) was originally 100% against the idea, but after having one, he's changing his mind. I don't know if we ever WILL adopt or not - but I really would love to...

If money and space were no consideration, I'd like to have 2 naturally and adopt 2 - but we'll see what happens...
 
if you ladies who are missing your backyard are willing to give up living "centrally" there is no reason why you can't have one! there are lots of village houses around, in great communities that have gardens, or at least a rooftop (depending on your budget) or maybe even both!

you and hubby just have to get used to the idea of not being in the midst of everything with shops on your doorstep. it is possible to have exactly what you crave for fairly little (by HK standards).

as i've said before, we have it. we have 5 large bedrooms(we don't use them all as bedrooms~ the kids share a HUGE room, we have a MASSIVE ensuite, we use one for storage, one for a PLAYROOM!!!, and one for our helper), 4 large bathrooms, two large balconies, 1000' garden PLUS a rooftop. we pay less than $20k/month. yes, we have to drive almost everywhere, but for us and for all of the expats in our village (there are only 3 or 4 locals) the trade-off is so worth it!

when i was in Oz last year, i caught myself saying to my friend... "oh, you have a garden! what i would give to have a .... wait, i have a garden! a PLAYROOM! it must be wonderful to have the space to have a .... wait, we have a playroom!" it really hit home and has cut the homesickness down quite a bit to realise that we have almost everything we would have if we lived "at home" instead of HK.
 
Cara, I'd love to move out far away - BUT I don't have to travel to Central for work every day. Hubby does and he's always been a "Hong Kong Island" person. When he was born, he was living in Causeway Bay, then lived mostly around Tai Koo... we're currently in North Point. We might be able to move a bit further out and get somewhere bigger/with more facilities... but I doubt he'd ever want to live out in "country Hong Kong"!! Every time we visit out there, I'm like "Wow, so much space for much less $$!!" and he's like "Wah - so inconvenient. I'm SO GLAD I don't live out in the middle of nowhere!!"

At least I know that we ARE planning to move back to Australia some day, and our sacrifices over here will pay off and we'll be able to afford something there that is bigger/nicer than we would have been able to afford if we'd never lived in Hong Kong. And really, it's not THAT bad...
 
Cara, I agree with you in part. We could move out of midlevels but have already lived in NT and found it very isolating (most of our friends are on HK Island) and took 40 mins in the bus to work each way (and then, was pre-kids and I was working crazy long hours and almost all weekends). I have to travel to Central for work 3 times a week now and I could never do that 962 bus ever again! But it is not just that, the weather here is so hot for such a lot of the year that having a garden here is not as easy. And then there's the rain! We are in HK for a reason and we make it work but it does seem so much easier at home with a child than it does in HK (maybe partly "grass is greener" syndrome) ...
 
it IS a trade off. we are lucky in that hubby works from home and I drive. it takes me 45 minutes to work (in tsing yi) each way. there are days that i wish we lived closer to it all, especially nights that i'd like to go to a movie or something with hubby. there are times that i look at folks that have some facilities (playground/pool) and wish... "god, it would be nice..." but i really am thankful for what we have. there is nowhere else in HK that we could ever hope to afford the space that we have. the travel time is a sacrifice that i'm willing to make. many people travel a lot more than that to and from work, at "home" and in HK, so i can do it too. (just wish the petrol wasn't so darned expensive!)

there are village houses that are only a few minutes from the nearest MTR station...
 
I voted for 1 and I have 1 adorable son. I just can't see myself having more. My family was shocked I even had one as all I focussed on was my career. I know there are pro's and con's to an only child but my hubby and I are very happy with our decision.
 
I'd love 4 or 5. Right now we only have two. They are great, but I really feel like there is a son waiting to come to our family.
 
starbucks2 said:
Cara, I agree with you in part. We could move out of midlevels but have already lived in NT and found it very isolating (most of our friends are on HK Island) and took 40 mins in the bus to work each way (and then, was pre-kids and I was working crazy long hours and almost all weekends). I have to travel to Central for work 3 times a week now and I could never do that 962 bus ever again! But it is not just that, the weather here is so hot for such a lot of the year that having a garden here is not as easy. And then there's the rain! We are in HK for a reason and we make it work but it does seem so much easier at home with a child than it does in HK (maybe partly "grass is greener" syndrome) ...
Click to expand...

If you were taking the 962 (the one that stops every few meters for a bus stop?!) then you must have lived in New Territories West, right? Now that there is the West Rail and it's connected through Hung Hom it's a LOT faster than the bus. I hate the 962 as well! If I had to take that thing every day I would definitely move.

We have to take a minibus to go to our train station (or walk for for about 15-20 minutes from our house) but as I went through the hassle with a newborn before I had any real connection to the mom/baby scene in HK, I guess I've adjusted. I appreciate that we can have more space for less than 1/2 the price and it's quiet at night. We don't have a garden (yard) but we do use the roof of our house for this purpose as well as our two balconies.

It's interesting to hear someone say that the NT can be isolating (which I do relate to because I lived as a foreigner in a nearly all-Chinese village inhabited by senior citizens with a newborn baby) but now, if I were to move to the midlevels, I would feel isolated. Even when I travel there (which is very, very rare) I feel like I'm in another world compared to what I'm used to--not exactly comfortable for me. I guess it just depends on where you live and what you're used to. Eventually I made friends here and it forced me to reach out of my comfort zone and make friends with Chinese and South East Asian people that I probably wouldn't have if I lived in what one of my Koreans affectionately referred to once as the "foreign ghetto." :tongue:

There are many faces of Hong Kong and I'm glad that we can have our choice of where to live. Although Hong Kong Island is sort of the mascot or face of Hong Kong (that's where most of the post cards are of, right?) I feel really lucky to get to experience a part of Hong Kong (even with it's bad points--like the gruffness and well, downright rudeness a lot of NT locals exhibit) that many tourists and even foreigners never see.
 
i, too, think it depends on where in the NT you choose to live. there are parts that have relatively more expats than others. (our village has only a handful of locals... ALL the other residents are expats! i think because locals consider it too far to travel.)

choosing to live in NT is like choosing to live on hk island. it is a LIFESTYLE choice. personally, i would NEVER, EVER, EVER choose to live in mid-levels. i would absolutely HATE it there. i much prefer having the space, quiet and safe environment for my kids, than the convenience of restaurants in spitting distance.

doesn't make your choice wrong, just different. but it is that, a choice.

to make it sound like a life with a garden and space is impossible is just not right. it IS possible, but you have to give something up to get it.
 
I get really mentally worn out when I go to the midlevels--or basically anywhere in the "city." Like I will have done pretty much nothing and still feel just exhausted--also, my throat tends to hurt a lot more as well as itchy eyes from being around more diesel fumes--but it's getting pretty bad with that everywhere in Hong Kong it seems.

I just feel like where we live is a retreat away from all the non-stop action of HK and I really like that. But, for others who thrive on being in the middle of it all and go-go and like you said, always having western food (or at least really decent international food) at their fingertips, I'd say that the midlevels is the place.
 
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