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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I am an adult only child and so don’t feel lonely. My parents have lots of siblings, but both are black sheep and I am not close to any of my cousins.

I am close to my parents and I am so thankful so have their help and support with my young kids - they pick them up from school / preschool once a week and take them on early release and other days school is closed.

Watching my parents and my husband’s parents deal with siblings when caring for elderly parents and settling estates, I am happy I don’t have to navigate those decisions with a sibling. My husband married me knowing that taking care of my parents in old age is something I will need to do, including potentially needing to support them financially. I made sure we were on the same page of what we are willing to do - they won’t live with us, we may need to pay for assisted living, paying for them will not come at the expense of paying for our kids’ college and our retirement savings goals, etc.

I love my in-laws and my husband’s sisters so much. It’s like I get all the benefit and joy of having adult siblings with none of the baggage. [/quote]

This is OP. Thank you for helping me think about this some more. I suppose I wouldn’t feel so alone if my parents were 20 years younger and could be supportive the way yours are. That makes a world of difference. [/quote]

I think this is a big part of it for you OP and I'm sorry you're dealing with all of these things now. It's har dot be pulled in different directions. 
I'm an only child and very very lucky that they had me young (they were 25) So now I'm nearly 40 and have very young kids but they're mid 60s, full of energy, still working and traveling and in good health. We are also all local and chose to stay that way and they will age in place and not retire far away. We see each other weekly and they help us a lot more than we help them right now. My dh has a sister and his parents are a full decade older so he has now started doing more caretaking since their health has taken some hits lately.  his sister is a flight away and in an inflexible job so while they make some decisions together it's all on him (and on me). 
Money and health make such a big difference in these situations and as a child you don't have much control over how your parents lived their to have sufficient amounts of either when they have aged. [/quote]

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