Was the condition a tilted uterus? 'Cause that’s very similar to how my brother happened–Mom’s doctor told her she would never be able to have kids, and she saw no point in wasting money on pills that weren’t doing her any good, then six weeks later she was back in trying to figure out what on earth was wrong with her.
I, otoh, was conceived while she was on the pill, though it’s always been characterized as being a few months off schedule rather than an accident.
So, my mother was born when her mother was only 17. And, in a twist not officially related in any way, grandmother had been walking along a picket fence as a child and slipped and fell, and one of the fence boards penetrating her.
As a child, I accepted both of these statements at face value and read nothing into them.
Years later it occurred to me that the fence story sounded like an excuse for why she didn’t appear to be a virgin later, though it seemed weird that the little grandchildren would hear the story.
So it seems to me today that there are four possible interpretations: 1) The early birth and the fence story are unrelated and to be taken at face value; 2) the fence story was a cover for her not being a virgin, and my mother never figured that out; 3) the fence story was a cover, mom realized this, but told us anyway so we’d take it at face value; 4) it was a cover, mom knew it, and we were supposed to realize it too. And NONE of these seem plausible.
Besides, who tells little children that a fence board penetrated grandma?
Yes, without a doubt. My parents were both quite young. My father 19, my mother 18. They are both Peruvian and were living in Lima at the time and going to College. They met, got pregnant, secretly married. The plan was that my dad would continue his studies in Canada. My grandfather put him on a plane north. Instead my dad changed his ticket, went to Paris where my mom later joined him and where I was born.
Not in the sense of “my parents were actively avoiding conception”, but definitely a surprise, as Mom was officially sterile. That led to me being known as “the miracle” until 2.miracle turned around six years later (again, not an accident but definitely a surprise), at which point I got downgraded to Elder Sister and Mom’s old doctors to Those Imbeciles.
Littlebro was a semiaccident in that they were sort’a avoiding another pregnancy, but only sort’a.
Both Nephews were planned.
My boss is currently pregnant and the kid is “unexpected but very much desired” (they’d been told they would need IVF), so a situation similar to my own and Middlebro.
Are accidental pregnancies way more common that I thought, or is the title of this thread just heavily self-selecting?
Anyways, my parents had been trying for a little while before they had me. It was seven years into their marriage before she finally conceived (not that they were trying all seven years–they got settled into a house first).
I was a very persistent accident, apparently, making it through both birth control pills and a condom, or so I’m told. 
And falling in age 2 1/2 years on either side between my shotgun-wedding older sister and my younger brother, who might have been a deliberate last-ditch attempt at a boy, I’m not sure.
I don’t know if I was an accident (though I suspect not), but at least I do know I wasn’t a shotgun wedding-type of birth, as I wasn’t born until a couple years after my parents got married. My sister came along almost 3 years later, and I was given the impression that this gap was intentional.
i’m a result of bad math and the unreliability of the rhythm method 
Yep. My mum got pregnant at uni aged 22, didn’t tell my father, and instead went home to my (very Catholic, very shocked, but ultimately supportive) grandparents and raised me by herself, with their help.
Apparently I was conceived during the cast party of a Brecht play my dad was in. Mum choose to wait till she was at the cast party of my first uni play before divulging this particular bit of information to me - and all of the other guests!
I think they are, but it also depends on how people are defining things like “accident” and “planning”.
To me, “planning” is an active process. Your parents and family have told you of the many years they tried for kids, in these times, people are using their cycles to match their fertilities. It also means using birth control to avoid the kids, and choosing the exact time of conception (say, getting pregnant during these months so that my kid will be born before the start of the school year, or timing it to some other event).
An “accident”, though, can also have different meanings. It can be those that made it through birth control (when the parties were intentionally NOT trying to conceive).
But what about those, like me and I suspect most of humankind… where it “just happened”? They were not actively trying to get pregnant, but they were not too cautious preventing one. Are those accidents?
In my case, I put myself as a yes, but only a little. My parents, although dating for a long time, where still unmarried (and I was the reason for their marriage). OTOH, I’m sure my older siblings (by dad’s ex-wife) were the same as I was. Not actively planned, but no birth control was done.
I don’t think myself as “planned”, unless you define “planned” as “oh well, they wanted kids some day”. And I don’t think of that word that way.
I have to say, when I read some of the reports about “Oh, I was planned” by people born much more earlier than I… I kinda don’t believe it. You were not planned. You weren’t “unplanned”, but I’m sure you were just a “it happened”.
And btw, you may well have been, for your parents, the best thing that “just happened”.
The years are off, but this could be my family too. All the kids (4) were to be ‘had’ and out of the way in the 50s, and along I come in the mid 60s. Of course the ‘why’ was never discussed, but either it was an accident or it was my mother not wanting to feel ‘old’.
Another “yes and no” here, adopted at 4 days old. My parents knew they were going to adopt me weeks before I was born, I think they may actually have known my genetic mother. I’ve never asked, I don’t want to know. As far as I’m concerned I only have one family, one set of parents, and they’re both gone now, so no more info from them even if I wanted it.
I was a bonus baby.
Hmm, I learned that the pill was actually MORE potent back in the seventies. In fact, it was so potent that women started having strokes and other such nasties because of it. After protests and hearings, the estrogen content of the pill was reduced by about a third. Though I suppose “more estrogen” does not necessarily equal “more effective,” so you could be right.
As for me, I was planned. My mom had had something like two miscarriages before me, so my parents definitely made a conscious effort to conceive me.
My boyfriend fits the scenario laid out by the OP about larger-gap children, in that he fits most of the “only child” characteristics. In his case, though, I think his older brother (who’s in his 30’s) was the accident, while my bf (who’s 22) was planned.
[quote=“Count_Blucher, post:91, topic:552316”]
Yeah, coz there’s nothing like taking care of an infant later in life to make one NOT feel “old”.
I define those as “surprises” but not “accidents”. Bonus on the surprise part if either party was supposed to be unable to conceive due to a medical problem (but they did want kids, they just believed it was not possible to have them, and the supposed inability to conceive didn’t stem from snipping).
Calling my two-dozen cousins who were conceived when their parents used the “we do it when the husband wants to” method common in the Spain of the 60s and 70s “accidents” would be pretty silly, I think.
Thinking that conception requires more than one time and therefore not bothering with anticonceptives isn’t even an “accident”; neither is being unable to obtain anticonceptives.
On purpose, for strange reasons. Both my parents were in the Army in 67, 68. My Dad met my Mom, married her and they had me only because he was convinced he would die in Viet Nam and wanted to have offspring.
He didn’t die. He came home to a baby and a wife, which was not in his plans. Divorce followed soon after, and now we don’t speak.
So wanted, but…er…not that I’m not happy to be here or anything, but that’s just a dumbass reason.
Incidentally, each of my parents have been married three times, and I am their only child. I suspect neither of them wanted kids very much at all…
See, that is what I would definitely called a surprise.
OTOH, if they knew that having sex could lead to pregnancy, and that they were both healthy (perhaps with previous kids proving fertility)… It seems also silly to call them “surprises” when pregnancy is not exactly a surprise if you’re having sex (and are not supposed to be infertile or actively trying NOT to get pregnant).
Please understand, that while I’m using “accident”, I’m in no way making a judgement about whether or not the resulting babies are/were wanted/loved. But my conception, like another poster mentioned, was an “oops!”.
I’m adopted, so that means was both an accident for my biological parents and planned for my adoptive parent.
Neither surprises, not accidents, nor planned, nor unplanned, nor oopses. Those conceptions were intended but not planned. I think we have bought too deeply into this notion that you can plan pregnancies like you plan a summer picnic, and to the notion of planning picnics without a thought for summer storms. That’s not how it worked thirty years ago, and it still doesn’t quite work like that now.