Mailman: All those kids yours?
Frank Gilbreth: Oh, these aren’t so many. You ought to see the ones we left behind.
Mailman: How you ever feed ‘em?
Frank Gilbreth: Oh, they come cheaper by the dozen.
From Cheaper by the Dozen (1950)

I’ve seen both the 1950 and the 2003 movies, Cheaper by the Dozen.  Both were quite entertaining, and both left me with no doubt that I would stick to some number of children significantly less than 12!  Although, to be honest I used to joke about having twelve while discussing kids with my wife.

Children.  Love em, sometimes you want to strangle them.  (Figuratively speaking).  They cost money. But not nearly as much as some say.  Do you want children?  How many do you want?  Would you like girls, boys?  What do you believe about choosing the gender?  Would you choose if you could?  (FYI, you can) How far apart?  If you and your spouse are unable to have children for some reason but want them, is adoption an option. 

What about discipline?  Timeouts? Spanking?  Revoking privileges?  How will you resolve differences of opinion?

Education?  Private, public, or home school? Teaching them how to be honest, hard working, diligent, good money management, self-controlled, kind and more?  What about matters of faith and belief? 

You only have 17-19 years to make this happen and both parents need to be roughly on the same page or conflicts will erupt.  Discuss it now.  None of this has to be finalized now, but you do need to know how you are generally going to handle these issues.  Something that must be determined now is whether or not you will even have kids.  Some couples never discuss this and after they are married begin to realize that they are not evenly matched when it comes to their hopes, desires, goals and dreams surrounding children and how they will be trained.