Will she be lonely?

[mommabear12]

I'm worried about Dd age 3. We have sort of decided she will be an only as neither of us feel up to going through it all again. However I don't know how to stop her being lonely especially in school holidays etc. We take her out as much as possible but we seem to be surrounded by families with siblings playing together. I worry dd is a bit sad on her own and we also have lots of negative comments about her being an only which makes me feel worse. Should I provide a sibling?

No she won't be lonely! She may well complain as life goes on that she has no one to play with but believe me I've got three and they all complain!

Do not assume that siblings play together. I'm still waiting for it to happen. It does occasionally but that's it.

Does she have any cousins? Next best thing to siblings

Yes she has a cousin the same age and we try to meet up as often as possible.

No, she won't.
She won't fall out constantly with her siblings either.
Win win.
Lots of positive threads in the only children section.

Remember the world is - and always has been - full of single children. Some people can only have 1 child, some get divorced or widowed.

You don't see miserable only children/adults everywhere.

I am a twin and tbh my sister is a lovely, quiet, shy type. I'm a chatterbox and quite a live wire. So being socially outgoing isn't a sibling thing.

Provide her with opportunities to socialise such as clubs, play dates - maybe things like guides where they go on camps. She will be fine!

I can only have 1 (we think ... might get lucky who knows) and I think people can be stupid and cruel assuming everyone "should" have 2.4 and judging those with more or less.

My son is a only child, I would like another child perhaps in a couple of years but I have been warned that I may not be able to carry a child again.

My son is fine though being a only child. We do make I think more of an effort to play with him ourselves than we would if he had a sibling. We also take him out a lot and do things with him. It does also help he has my cousins, which are nearer his age than mine so he plays with them all the time.

I'm an only child. I never had any problems growing up. I remember going through a phase of begging my mum for a brother or sister, but this was mainly when I was about 8 years old and really wanted a baby to play with (dolls must not have been realistic enough for me).
Looking back what I found is that I found it easier to make friends because I 'forced' myself to (on holiday and in playgrounds etc) because I had nobody else to play with so growing up I made new friends all the time.

my mum always wanted a lot of children but she was unable to due to extremely high blood pressure and kidney problems, but she always jokes saying I was the equivalent of 20 children wrapped up in one

Your Dd won't be lonely. Especially with cousins, I'm very close to mine and it's lovely because we love each other like siblings but aren't around each other enough to start fighting like siblings.

Children are very good at entertaining themselves if they're on their own so she won't get bored or lonely I assure you.

She will be fine, don't worry.
We do make an effort to arrange playdates, see friends with kids etc. But equally dd is happy pottering about at home/taking outings just with us.

Don't assume that siblings are happily playing with each other all the time...I've seen plenty of parents tearing their hair out over sibling bickering/rivalry/competing demands etc.

Having siblings isn't a guarantee of not being lonely. There's no guarantee that family members' personalities will be the same or even compatible with each other.