ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the meanings and functions of particular family sizes for particular couples—at what motivates couples to decide that two, or three, or five children is a good number for them. Among those couples in which both partners want more children, about two-thirds of the whites agree on the number of children required to complete their preferred family size. Within the small range which includes the family size preferences of almost all the couples in the sample, there are strong feelings about which particular number is most satisfactory from the husband's or wife's point of view. Interestingly enough, women are not influenced by their own preferences in the rationales they offer for a small family; many women who want large families understand that others who want smaller ones are concerned about providing for their children, and are less likely than men who want large families to see only selfishness on the part of such parents.
