Where are all the only children?

[BrownWoodenChair]

Where are all the only children ? Literally all my sons friends who are 8 have a sibling and most kids in school have at least 1 sibling! Middle class area in the north. I thought families were smaller now

Ours is an only child and all of his friends are only children too except for 1 who has an older sibling. In my friend group from home, there are 5 of us; 4 of us only had 1 child and the 4th doesn't have any. When we needed to take less stuff out and about and we no longer needed a buggy all the time, we realised we were happy as a trio.

We call our DD 24 our Limited Edition. Couldn’t have any more but would have loved to. ‘Only child’ sounds so negative to me. Limited Edition is so much more positive.

Mine is an only child. She's got a friend her age (7) who is as well.

They're in the expensive small properties - city flats.

People move out and north because they want more space for "growing" families often - a second or third child.

Also the per woman figures are average and are actually a lot of families with two or more children averaged out with just as many women remaining childless. It doesn't mean there are mostly one child families.

1 in my son’s class, really not that common here. Most have 3 kids!

My son is, and 2 of his pals are.

I wouldn’t like to say how common it is, though.

I would say most people seem to have two in my youngest sons class, we’re definitely an anomaly by having 3, whereas when I was young most of my friends were one of 3-4 siblings.
My own siblings have 2 and the other 1, my in-laws have 2 and then 0 so we’re odd again for having 3.

It tends to differ by race / religion as well. Lots of Muslim families I know of have 4 or more.

We know absolutely loads. I’m in a minority with two. Out of my original NCT group four are one and done, with just me and one other lady with two.

They aren't, you know. ONS figures indicate 3.7 million families with one child -- 45% of total. (Obviously some of those families will have another child.) But by 2031, it's predicted it will be fully half of all UK families will be raising a single child.

But certainly there are lots of variables by region. Big urban-rural divide. I knew loads of other one-child families in London, but when we moved to a village in the midlands, not only did I encounter only about three over eight years (DS's class of 27 had only two others), but people were vocally incredulous we weren't planning any more.

Love this

DD is an only child and I think there's another 3 in her class. Plus one of our family friends has an only.

Most people we know have 2. A few of her school friends/classmates are one of 3 or more.

Around 5 only children in my child's Y1 class of 28. Similar in the other Yr1 class. Most kids have 1 sibling - only 2 children in the class have 2 siblings each, none have more than that.

Both my parents (war babies) are only children!!

Our daughter is one of about 3 only children, it’s not the normal apparently, constantly get asked when the next is coming and that she needs a brother or sister, I’ve politely over the year said we’re not having another.

Bored of being asked now, I just say I’ve met the scissor man and we aren’t having more.

middle class means more dc these days I thought

I saw a family of 8 the other day, 6 dc! All very well to do.

Only children are very common in my area. I think there’s only a few children in my child’s class that have siblings.

My eldest's best friends at uni were an only child and the 6th of ten children!

Yes, the family with ten are astonishingly well off (not middle class, old money with dad doing something undefined in banking and mum having studied medicine but given itvup to raise ten children) whilst the only child's family were probably technically lower middle or upper working class although also look to be financially comfortable. Refreshingly all the offspring/ friends did a vocational type degree course and now work full-time.

3 children here but all my neighbours are single children. There’s a few 2 child families further into the estate

My godson is an only. So am I but I’m 45

Both my children are in primary school - thinking about it, neither of them have any children in the classes who are only children.

I’ve just worked out in my DS’s class of sixteen there are four only children, two children with two siblings and the rest all have one sibling. In my friendship group it seems more common to have just one though

Definitely not common in my children’s school - historically Irish community (but not in Ireland) everyone has minimum 3 children, 4 is very common some have 6. Strong community ties and growing up in an area where extended families stay living locally mean lots of grandparents do childcare and uncles aunts and cousins pitch in with the school run, having more than one child means lots of siblings also do the school run for the littles on the way to secondary. Literally everyone in the primary school moves to the same secondary. There is only 2 children in my eldest class of 32 who are only children

Most of the families I know with school age children have 2 or 3. Of the only children I know all but one have older mothers and most of those were IVF babies. The one whose parents are younger, the parents separated well before he was at school. Either his mum or dad could have another child in the future.