How do you cope when your only child gets upset that they don't have a sibling and everyone else does?

[CountessDracula]

I have one dd aged 6. We have tried for more but nothing doing (took 3 years to conceive her too)

Today we were walking to school with one of her friends and friend's mother said she was going to the hospital. Friend piped up "Mummy#s having another baby, I'm going to have a baby sister"

DD became very quiet and withdrawn and pulled me aside and whispered "It's not fair, she already has a little sister"

I talked to her about it then and tonight. She said she would like a little sister and that she is sad she can't have one. I have told her that not everyone can have children and some people can only have one and that we are trying to have another but that it was unlikely now. She seems fine but it breaks my heart to think of her being unhappy about it

Pooka said it very well.

We've got an only through necessity rather than choice. She has once or twice said that she would like a sister but - as with cmotdibbler's son - this is part and parcel of wanting what her friends have. She'd also like a Nintendo DS and a cat. When I've said that there won't be any more babies - and there would be a 50/50 chance that any baby would be a boy - she has just shrugged her shoulders.

None of the only children I know has ever been greatly bothered at not having a sibling. Children do pick up very quickly on the mood around them and so I too wonder whether any child who is so upset is mirroring or mimicing the behaviour of the adults around them.

As Gunnerbean says, I think anyone in my situation has to train themselves to see the glass as half full. In the words of Bing Crosby, accentuate the positive.

We also have a dog bought as a child substitute according to my husband! Our 6 year old DD calls the dog her sister! DD has never mentioned a sibling until just recently and it breaks my heart to hear her get upset about not having a baby brother and sister although I don't let her see that of course. I wonder if it is because lots of her school friends have recently had a new baby in the family. She's also noticed she is the only one in her class not to have a brother or sister

From about the age of 2 1/2 to approx age 8 my DD was really upset that she didn't have a sibling to play with, share her room with, etc. Now at age 9 she realises that the grass is not always greener .... She is actually glad now that she is an only child (except when we go on holiday).