are there many onlies in your child's school?

[pinktoad]

I have one DS who is meant to be starting school next year and I was wondering whether he would really stand out. We are slightly older parents - had him at 37 and until recently it's not been much of an issue. But looking around us most of his friends do now have a sibling and he is beginning to notice it too. Not sure why, but I suddenly got a bit sad that it will be the same when he starts school and that he'll be the odd one out. Dont have many friends in RL to ask as they all have much older kids etc

I don’t think this really matters. Presumably you will make sure he can always invite friends home? (When you can). I had two children and went through a stage when everyone else was having a third or fourth. Then my son went through a stage where the parents of his three best friends all split. When my daughter went to uni she was the only person in her crowd who a) had lived in the same house all her life and b) whose parents hadn’t split up. There will always be differences in home background. I know several onlies who grew up self assured, confident and successful.

DS(6) is an only child, and there are half a dozen other only children in his class. Some of those will probably have a younger sibling at some point.

DS has definitely become more aware that other children have siblings, but I would say lockdown has brought this on more than school tbh.

We are lucky that three of his old baby group friends are only children, so he doesn't see it as a rare or odd thing.

Yes, I think the lockdown has also made me a bit more conscious of this. I never really thought that it would be much of an issue but am not sure whether it's his age or just feeling more isolated/in our own bubble more generally. Lovely to hear other people's views on this

There's a real mix at school, some have loads of siblings, some have much older siblings and are already aunties or uncles, some live with grandparents or Foster parents or have step parents, half siblings etc.... All families are v different so there's no way they'd stick out.

We live in a road with 3 families with only children - it's definitely not unusual.

I honestly don't know!

My sibling was 7years younger than me so never at school with them. I was able to always bring a friend on days out though which made me plenty of friends. And I had the benefit of them going home at the end of the day and not having ti share my toys.

My DS is an only, there are a few others in his class. It’s not been commented on yet.

In DS1 class when he started school there was a couple
In DDs there 9 or 10 out of a class of 30
In DS2 there was 1 because 24 of them were younger siblings who had siblings already in the school!

So as you can see it can vary

Dd is an only, her best friend has 5 brothers and sisters and she loves coming here as it’s so peaceful compared to her home! I’d say the majority have siblings but dd wouldn’t thank you for one! I also had her late (35), it hasn’t caused any issues tbh.

DS is an only and I think there are a couple of others in his class but I’m not sure. It really has not been an issue.

I can only reliably talk about my child and my previous teaching experience.

When teaching, there was always a minimum of 10% who were only children. Now obviously some would no doubt end up with a sibling or step siblings as a result of blended families too. And likewise there was pretty much always a young child who had a much older sibling say 10 or 15 years plus age gap, which was in some ways worse than being an only!

In my child's infants class, my lo there are 7 only children of which at least five of us as parents are older than 42.

No. Same at primary.
Lockdowns definitely harder for an only.

DS has one only in his yr4 class. DD has none in her nursery class if you count pregnancies. I was an only who hated it hence why I have 2. I think it just means you have to work harder at helping him with his social life.