Reply to Will I regret having only one child?

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[quote=Anonymous]I am an only child and it is a very lonely and empty life, especially if one lives in an area without any local extended family.  When I was growing up the closest extended family was a 5 hour plane ride away, and we only saw them once a year.  We spent every holiday alone, and my parents did not believe in celebrating holidays just the three of us because it was "too much work."  So for instance on Thanksgiving instead of making a traditional Thanksgiving dinner we would just go out to eat, and even as a child this lack of celebrating any holidays really bothered me.  We had very few to no family traditions.  As a child being an only child felt like an incomplete family to me--I still feel this way even as an adult.  I felt different being an only child and it made me self-conscious.  Even as an adult, this feeling different and feeling of self-consciousness has negatively impacted many of my relationships.

As a child with a SAHM, I felt scrutinized constantly.  My mother had too much time on her hands and was always nit-picking me about something--how much she hated my hair, how I was too fat, etc.  Even as an adult she does the same thing--criticizes me and my lifestyle choices.

While I was lonely as a child, as an adult I am 100 times lonelier.  We are still very far from extended family, and only see them once or twice a year.  One of the things I envy the most is people with large, loving families who spend fun holidays together and vacation together in the summers in a big beach house.  I long for a loving, supportive extended family but it's something I'll never have.  My husband's family is awful and dysfunctional, and we have very little relationship with them.

We have one child but plan to have another one.  I want something different for my child than the way I grew up.[/quote]

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