will soon get first bird or should it be two?

[highclouds]

We have never had a bird and plan to start with a budgie or two. We have been to two pet stores and have gotten a couple of books and looked online a bit. The pet store people were pretty adamant in recommending only one bird. They said that if we got two budgies, they would not permit our 10 year old daughter to interact with them much because they would have each other. They said that our daughter (and us) will become their flock if we don't get another bird so our single bird would not be lonely. The other sources seem to lean the other way - that the birds will pine away if they have no other bird companion.

This will be my daughter's only pet, so I would like to follow the advice of the pet stores but I don't want the bird to be miserable.

I am a stay at home mom so the bird would not be alone all day.

If we do get two, I think it would be best to get two brothers at the same time. Hopefully, that would be the best guarantee of them getting along later and I would not have to deal with introducing them or quarantining one, etc. So, I want to figure out whether to get one or two now.

Also, one of the books said it is best to get them before they are 3 months old. I wonder how important this is.

Any advice would be appreciated.

thanks,

Adele