I'm an only child ask me anything

[PinkBalloon123]

Fire away...

How many children do you have?

Zero

Are you spolit?

Would you have liked siblings growing up?

Definitely not spoiled no

I briefly wondered what it would be like to have a sibling but overall I loved having Mum and Dad to myself

Do you worry about being on your own when your parents die?

I don't worry about being on my own as such, but I worry about losing my parents and missing them as I love them so much!

Sometimes grief is easier to bear when it's shared. I think that's the part that I'd find hard.

Did you have cousins you were close to growing up?

I'm an only and did so was never lonely, but ds is also an only who doesn't have any and I do worry about him being a bit lonely sometimes. He does have loads of friends though he's much more popular and confident than I ever was

My son is an only (not by choice), what is the thing that you really miss growing up about being an only? How did you cope

I did have a cousin very close to me both in age and location growing up. I don't see a great deal of him now but we do catch up on occasion and I love him as if he were my own brother.

There are loads of things I miss, such as no responsibility and having that magical feeling about Christmas and colours and funfair lights etc, but that's about being a kid in general not necessarily an only child.

Do you plan to have DC? If so do you plan on having a only or would you want more than one given your experiences as a only.

I'm an only OP. I hated it.

I have 2 DC and want one more.

I'm never having children and I've never wanted them, not even for a split second. I'm not child friendly and I'm very selfish with my alone time. I'm 94% introverted. I do wonder if it's because I was an only child and had a 'quiet' childhood and I'm not used to noisy kids etc, but then I know an only who had 5 herself so I guess everyone is different.

I'm an only, also hated it and now have 3dc. And now have the sole load for elderly and increasingly infirm parents, which I find lonely and stressful. Like OP I am pretty introverted and sometimes find the chaos of 3 kids overwhelming! But watching the warm relationships between my kids is the happiest part of parenting.

I suspect there are as many varied experiences of only-dom as there are varied experiences of having siblings...

I find a lot of people, not all obviously, are not close to siblings and if anything have their lives made difficult because of it. Arguing over money or resentment caused by one taking on the lions share of parental care etc

Did you find it difficult to make friends in secondary? If yes when did you eventually get to make close friends? We’re you classed as the awkward one?

This thread is like a bingo sheet for negative myths about only children. Why would OP have found it hard to make friends in secondary school or be classed as 'awkward'?! FFS.

I was pretty awkward in school. But I think that was down to wanting to be with the 'in' crowd when really I should have just accepted I wasn't one of them and made nicer friends in my own league.

As an adult I do have a lot of great friends but I don't see them all the time. I'm extremely introverted and need a lot of quiet time alone and I do think that's because my happy and stable childhood was like that. I can't be bothered being around people for too long.

I worry about losing my parents and missing them as I love them so much!

What a lovely reply

I'm an only child and I was very extroverted and popular at school. I wasn't lonely at all, I think being an only gave me an amazing imagination. Both me and my partner are only children so we will need to consider if we only have one child it won't even have cousins which is a worry, but neither of us are particularly close to cousins tbh so it's an unfounded concern really. As for parental loss. I hope we will support each other with this so we won't be alone. There is nothing wrong with only children. The only thing I struggle with is conflict as siblings are probably the best area to practise conflict resolution etc.

This thread is like a bingo sheet for negative myths about only children

I know!

Did you feel sad in school when other kids talked about siblings or saw siblings together and you couldn't say you had siblings?

To be honest most of the time I just thought how shit it must be to share a room 🙈

So great to hear positive tales of being an only child, I have one (with no cousins) and people keep telling me how he will be lonely and isolated etc.

He's not an only child by choice either, not all of us have a choice. There's a special place in hell reserved for those bastards who say, "Ooh, you'd love a little brother or sister wouldn't you, little Octopus?"