Raising an Only Child and What to Say When People Have an Opinion
Despite the growing proportion of families opting for one child, and all the research dispelling old myths about social skills, loneliness, and over-parenting, the “only child” stigma is still strong in the family-size caste system. My daughter is an only child, and that sometimes has me on the defensive; I’ve armed myself with quippy retorts just in case insensitive questions are lobbed my way.
“But what if something happens to her?!”
“What if something happens to the both of you? She’ll be all alone if you die.”
“Won’t she feel lonely? “
“Only children are selfish, spoiled, and don’t know how to share.”
“I’m so jealous, I wish I had just one kid. It’s sooooo much easier.”
“I don’t know why anyone would want an only child. Don’t you want your daughter to have a sibling?”
“Only children are so weird.”
“That’s a lot of pressure to put on your daughter having to care for elderly parents all by herself.”
“Wasn’t Charles Manson/Norman Bates/Darth Vader/Bloody Mary an only child?”
“My brother/sister is my best friend. Life wouldn’t be the same without him.”
And yes, the voices in my head are assholes. Waaaaaaaay meaner than any real-life person I've encountered. So now that you've seen the questions, you can read my sassy responses and the post in entirety here.
coming from texas, where all my friends have 3 or 4 kids, we got alot of heat for getting a vasectomy after only 2. we got some of the same kind of push back, but in real life, like "i LOVED having lots of siblings, don't you want that for your kids?" "don't you want a big family?" "you're SO lucky you got a boy and a girl or else you'd have to keep trying" and my most favorite one "but that's like playing god, it's up to him how many kids you have..." FOR REAL. Every one of those questions you posted have been said to my husband when he wanted to stop at one kid after farrah (he's an only child). ha! he was nodding and laughing at your responses:)
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