Reply to Only child versus having more than one

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[quote=Anonymous]I think the right answer is do you and your spouse want another child.  The end.

I happen to be close friends with a lot of only children families and have seen these kids from birth to college at this point.  Dynamics I notice:

-Only children tend to see themselves as part of the adult unit and act as such.  It's less the parents in a marriage and the kids and more an equal threesome in terms of family decision making and dynamics.  This has pros and cons.  They are often very comfortable with adults, as a result.
-In only children families, the kid often comes along for what the adults are doing as opposed to kid-centric planning.  
-All the only children I know speak of someone else in their life as "like a brother to me" or "like a sister to me" and that always strikes me as a bit sad because I have siblings and I also have very close friends in my life and the relationship isn't the same at all.  I'm not sure if it's popular culture making them say those things or they genuinely just want to feel like they have that type of sibling relationship.
-Definitely a lot of focus on the one kid.  How could there not be?  The parents are getting to do everything only once and there is no other kid to focus on.  It is what it is.
-NO SIBLING BICKERING!  Sibling bickering sucks.
-But also no sibling fun.  Sibling fun is pretty great.
-Only children families have so much more free time and adults have so much more personal time.  No question.

Disclaimer:  I understand this is not every only child or every only child family.  I do not speak to every only child on the planet earth.  These are observations of things I've seen.[/quote]

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