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So here are my considered views on this!
I am an only child. I wanted for nothing. My parents devoted the entirety of their money on me. I received the best of education, have made a fab career, and now live halfway across the world from them. They were of the firm opinion that the fairest thing to their existing child would be to not divide their wealth and attention with a sibling to their child. My childhood was very unhappy. This is not to say that it would have changed with a sibling. I felt alone and vulnerable weathering the stormy break up of my parents. And today - I feel a similar degree of alone and vulnerable as they age in a country where COVID is ravaging people into newspaper headlines this month. Would I feel less scared or alone if another adult somewhere in the world was going through my exact feelings right now as I wait with bated breath for them to not catch COVID as their/my country swarms with the virus? Not sure. Who knows?
I have two children myself. My spouse is 1 of 3 - he had no views on this. I specifically decided to have 2. Number 2 was not created for No 1. That is a peculiar idea. I always planned to have 2. I know that our attention and money is divided. I also know adult siblings may or may not get on. But I dont worry about what I cannot control. At the minute I take heart in watching them play, share a room and bond. And I hope they have each others backs if they end up with a stormy childhood or when they worry about us in our old age. I cannot guarantee it - and they were not made for a guarantee.
This.
Also - to give another voice to the other perspective...I too am an only child and absolutely detested it. That feeling has not worn off as I've grown older (I am now 30), in fact, the profound feelings of loneliness have only intensified. And those feelings are only in relation to not having sibling. Perhaps it is in part linked to age, and that being an only child is in some ways easier for the generation(s) below me, but I cannot really see how that could be the case.
I have a wonderful relationship with both of my parents, a kind and loving partner, and close friendships, yet still I cannot shake the feeling that something is missing. It does and always has felt profoundly isolating. I do feel sad sometimes that once my parents are gone there won't be anyone else and that any family I have will be family that I have created.
This is one of the reasons I always promised myself that I would not settle down with a fellow only child, as if we ended up only having one child ourselves (due to circumstance, fertility issues etc), that child would have: no cousins, no aunts, no uncles, no grandparents, no brothers or sisters, and once we were gone (no parents). Zero family! That, to me, sounded awful, and very very lonely.
I was fortunate in that I had a lovely childhood with multiple opportunities and lots of love and affection, but it still did not cause the feelings of isolation to subside, and feelings of envying friends with siblings.
I should point out that I have met many only children who feel similarly, and I have also met only children who have disguised their pain from their parents when asked how they feel about being an only child so as not to burden their parents with something so emotive that they can do nothing to change.
Of course not everyone feels this way, and clearly (from this thread alone) there are many people who thrived in only-childhood (and subsequently, adulthood), but please don't believe that this has been the case for all of us. Far from it.