Being an Only Child

I have heard all of the myths about only children. We are bored, spoiled, anti-social, attention seekers, lonely, selfish, bratty, etc...I want to clear up some misconceptions and share some insight on this unique way to grow up at least as it pertains to me as an only child.

I was anything but bored. Only children still have friends. I think people imagine us in our rooms playing with legos and trying to entertain ourselves all day. I was rarely ever home alone growing up as I had lots of friends to spend lots of time with. I also spent lots of time outside shooting hoops which explains why I am a pro level "horse" player but not much good in a real game.

The most spoiled kids I knew were always the young kids from the biggest families or some kids from just plain rich families. Remember I am the youngest AND the oldest. I don't think most parents plan on having just one so for the most part they are conservative in raising the first. I never felt spoiled at all as I worked all through high school and paid for most everything myself.

We are very close to our parents. My mom is also an only child. My dad has one sister and she has two kids which gives me a grand total of 1 aunt and 2 cousins. So my family is very very small. I talk to my mom and dad each on the phone 2 or 3 times per week. It interested me so much after getting married to see how little Kirsten speaks with her parents. They never talk to one another just to see how things are going. That to me has been the most obvious difference between our own families.

Along with that comes the fact that I know pretty much everything about my mom. I have always known how much money we have, where it all is, how it is invested etc. It seems to me that lots of kids never knew how much money their parents made or where it was kept. I always appreciated this information and it kept things real for me as to how we were doing in life. I think often about how I want to handle this information with my own kids. I am still not sure.

Sometimes I hear of kids who resent their parents for not having more kids. I never felt like this. Just like with my adoption, I never even thought about the fact that I was an only child. I had an awesome childhood full of sports, vacations and other memories. I will say now though, that having married into a HUGE family, that I absolutely love them! I can see now what I missed and I am so appreciative to be a part of this new huge family but I will never regret or be upset by the awesome family and childhood I had. Even so I do hope to break the only child streak in my family :)

P.s. It is nice to have the "only child" disclaimer to fall back on if I ever seem to exhibit any of the aforementioned negative qualities...