[HPforGrownups] Seven Weasley Children

[GulPlum]

No: HPFGUIDX 45529

At 21:07 18/10/02 +0000, lucky_kari wrote:

>Do you know these families where they keep on having boys b/c they
>want a girl eventually? Coming from a large family myself (One girl
>and seven boys), I've heard that sort of thinking, but it always comes
>from the people who don't have the seven or eight kids. "Oh, you're
>still trying for a girl?"
>
>Yeah, like people really would do that in real life... Honestly. In
>the past, people might try for a boy (as in Pride and Prejudice), but
>those were different circumstances.

I don't know about other families, but in mine (seven kids; in order of 
appearance: four girls, then two boys, and a last girl; I am the 
penultimate one) I know for a fact that my parents were very deliberately 
trying for a boy after having four girls. This deliberation included taking 
heed of lots of folklore. I also know that when my mum was pregnant with me 
(back in the days before ultrasound), my parents were really hoping I'd be 
a boy to be company for my brother. Everyone is glad that their wishes came 
true. :-)

Incidentally, as for age differences and the posited unlikelihood of the 
age gap between Charlie and Percy, in our case, the births came at the 
following intervals:  marriage + 15 months + 1 year (almost to the day!) + 
13 months + 26 months + 5 years + 18 months + 6 years.

Based on my personal experience, the huge gap in the Weasley family strikes 
me as neither strange nor implausible.

--
GulPlum AKA Richard, neither a Seventh Son fan nor an Imperius! or Auror! 
Arthur fan, but agrees with those who consider that neither theory depends 
on the other...