TodayMoms.com did a recent survey of over 7,000 moms and the results claim that moms of 3 kids are more stressed than moms of 1 or 2 children.  In addition, moms who have 4 or more children report less stress than moms of 1 or 2 kids.

Even though I’m the mom of 5 kids, I’m probably not the best at judging the accuracy of these results.  I started out as the mom of 1 and then 2, but then ended up the single mom of 2.  I remarried and when my youngest son was 6-years-old I became the mom of 3.  I have to add that my oldest has autism which added a different dynamic to the family and a different level of stress.  Fast forward 18 years and I became the mom of 4, which in my world meant I started all over again with 1 child at home to care for.  Two years later I added child number 5, but only 2 in my care.  I could be wrong, but I have a feeling this survey didn’t include moms like me 🙂

Even though I may not be the ideal candidate for this survey, based on my experience I would have to say that my stress level with 3 was higher than it is with 2.  However, it really is hard to judge how that would be different if I wasn’t a mom dealing with the challenges of raising a child with autism.

I also have to ask how much personality plays into the stress that moms feel?  Did this survey take that into account?  For example, our oldest daughter requires demands enjoys a lot of attention and entertainment.  Truly, more than any of our other children.  Some of that attention and entertainment is provided by her younger sister, but many times it is being provided by me.  Not that I shouldn’t be providing that for my kids, because I should.  However, if she had her way, I would be spending the majority of my day catering to her entertainment requirements.  In walks stress as I’m trying to take care of all my responsibilities while giving her some of my attention.  And I need to provide some of my attention to child #5.  What if she had the company of 2 or 3 more siblings closer in age to provide her with the attention and entertainment she enjoys?  Would I feel less stress or would that just add more to my overflowing plate?  I don’t know and my husband has made it clear that I won’t be getting the answers to those questions 🙂  I have to assume that at least some of the moms surveyed have a similar challenge, but how did that factor into the results?

How many of the moms surveyed have children with autism or other challenges?

How many of the moms surveyed work outside the home vs. stay-at-home moms?

How many of the moms surveyed homeschool their kids vs. sending them to school outside the home?

While the article doesn’t provide answers to all my questions, I found this survey to be very interesting.

You can read the article by clicking on the link above, but here are some other interesting tidbits from the survey.

• 46 percent of moms say their husbands/partners cause them more stress than their kids do.
• 72 percent of moms stress about how stressed they are.
• Biggest cause of stress: 60 percent say it’s lack of time to do everything that needs to get done.
• 60 percent of moms say raising girls is more stressful than raising boys.
• Nine out of 10 moms stress about staying fit and attractive.

So to all you moms out there, how many kids do you have and how would you rank your stress level?

Are you the mom of 4 or more kids?  If so, do you feel you are more or less stressed now than when you had 1, 2 or 3 kids?

And what are you thoughts on the other survey results?