I should’ve made this clear earlier, everyone is making the assumption that there are two of us parents. It is just me.

Anonymous wrote:And don't make a child your everything. Very unhealthy for the child too

OP here. I was being hyperbolic. I was just trying to emphasize that I am focused on their needs in a loving way.

Benefits are that they have another person who is family, who grew up with them - to play with as a child and for commiserating and dealing with aging parents as an adult.

Also being the only center of two adults world and attention and money isn't actually a great thing. Life is about learning to get along with others, to share, to not be #1 all the time.

There is no guarantee either way. Not everyone is close to their siblings as adults, not all only children benefit from being only children. It is a crap shoot either way. However the majority of siblings do tend to benefit from having a sibling. One of my friends growing up was an only child. She hated it with a passion and ended up marrying someone with 6 siblings so that her kids could have a cousin, large family experience. He wasn't a great match for her and they later divorced but she didn't want her own kids to have the experience she had (her parents were both only children as well so their entire family was the 3 of them). I can't imagine life without my sister. However if my only sibling had been my older brother, it wouldn't have benefited me much as we never got along, right from being young children and rarely speak as adults. However our kids still love each other as cousins.

Anonymous wrote:Don't have another kid for your kid. Have one because you want one. Adults who were only children and adult who have siblings can all turn out to be functioning members of society. The are benefits and downsides to both. That's just life. And don't make your child your everything - you deserve a life too.

Yes, this. You can't guarantee that your only will be happy to have been an only or that siblings will be happy you gave them siblings. Depends on the kids and a bit on whether *you* the parent are happy with your family (I think kids are likier to be happy if the parents are happy). I am very close with both my sisters and adore them and love having sisters. One of my friends has little relationship with her brother and is realistically looking at potentially having to support him some day. Another one of my friends is an only who struggles with the idea of supporting both her parents in old age and being the sole focus of their ambitions for grandchildren. Another friend is an only who really appreciates the close relationship she had with her parents and other adults growing up. And this is a subset of people with good, loving parents who we love in return. If you're revelling in your family as is, OP, I would say don't mess with a good thing. I have two and no regrets but the shift from 1 to 2 was very hard on me.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have an only child who my everything. My child is a toddler and approaching an age where if I’m going to have another child it needs to be now for them to really be arguably close in age. What does everyone think about having an only child verse two children? Any thoughts and feedback much appreciated. I am looking for exclusively the perspective of The benefits it would have on my child. (not necessarily for my benefit)

Well do you want your child growing up to think they are someone's everything, that they always are first pick, that they are always the most important and then go out into the real world with that mindset. Or do you want them to learn compromise, negotiating, that life isn't always fair, how to get along with others, etc.

If you think the only way a child will learn this is with a sibling then you are doing parenting wrong.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have an only child who my everything. My child is a toddler and approaching an age where if I’m going to have another child it needs to be now for them to really be arguably close in age. What does everyone think about having an only child verse two children? Any thoughts and feedback much appreciated. I am looking for exclusively the perspective of The benefits it would have on my child. (not necessarily for my benefit)

Well do you want your child growing up to think they are someone's everything, that they always are first pick, that they are always the most important and then go out into the real world with that mindset. Or do you want them to learn compromise, negotiating, that life isn't always fair, how to get along with others, etc.

This is such a tired refrain. I'm an only child and guess what I learned how to compromise, negotiate and how to get along with others. It is possible to learn these things without a sibling.

Anonymous wrote:I have two girls - almost 4 years apart. The 4 years wasn't intentional but just how it worked out. I never wanted or intended to have an only. I have one sibling (brother) and we are reasonably close. I had a blast growing up with him.

I will say that the first years with my first daughter were magical and enjoyable. I have fond memories of that time.

I was honestly worried about having two girls because my experience of that with my girl cousins who were sisters is they HATED each other - and in adulthood are not close. But my girls are close and I am incredible happy they have this bond for life.

I think is totally a personal choice and I have no hangups about onlies. They are different and privileged in a way because they have the sole attention of two grown ups but the ones I've known are normal kids.

I also admit I wanted a sibling for my first child for morbid reasons - God forbid something happen to one of the children. And so that when their father and I die they aren't totally alone.

OP here. This is a huge consideration for me, too. One of my parents was an only child and did not like it. My closest friend is an only child and has serious struggles being in a relationship. I am fine with just one I just wanted peoples thoughts on whether or not to may be better for my child from a huge picture of perspective. This includes after I pass away. It would be nice for them to have each other.

I have an only and I think it presents some specific challenges. I think I have to work harder to make sure she gets plenty of social opportunities, I have to be careful that she doesn't get so used to being the center of adult's attention that she doesn't know how to share focus with other kids. I do think sometimes she is lonely. There are specific situations where I will think "it would be nice to have a sibling in this setting." The biggest being family vacations. We do try to go places and do things where there are likely to be other kids for this reason. When she's older we might invite her friends to come on some of these trips.

But here are what I consider to be the biggest advantages for her specifically (not for me or for our family, though I have a list of those as well, if you want them):

- She has a very clear idea of herself because she has been allowed to develop as strictly her own person, and is never compared or contrasted with a sibling. So her interests are organically hers. This has helped make her a pretty decisive and independent person. She's not overly rigid or anything (she was when she was younger but that's a common feature for many toddlers) and tries new things and surprises us sometimes with what she chooses. But when I compare this to my upbringing, where so much of what I did or didn't do was inspired by, dictated by, or done in opposition to, my siblings, I see that she doesn't have any of that and it's nice.

- She's very comfortable being alone and doing her own thing. Like I mentioned family travel being hard because I worry she gets bored. But the flip side to that is that she has so much experience traveling as an only that she is amazing at just tucking into a book or a game and entertaining herself for long periods of time. Same with summers, after school, weekends. We don't have to work hard at entertaining her.

- There are some obvious benefits around parental attention. She has really strong relationships with both me and her dad. We've been able to do things like teach her to cook and bake, teach her about photography, indulge lots of her art interests, etc. She gets lots of alone time with each of us. When we've had challenging periods with one or the other, we've been able to focus on addressing any conflict or issues without having to balance her needs with another kid. That's led to really great parent-child relationships with both of us. I know people with multiples can have this two, it's just my observation hat it was easier with one.

- There are financial benefits that she's already benefitted from and will continue to do so. If she is interested in an activity, we can usually just do it and not worry about it costing double because we need to pay for a sibling, or worry about budgeting for activities for multiple kids. It's also streamllined saving for college and the future in a really nice way that will eventually benefit her a lot. Her 529 is growing pretty quick even though we're not rich at all (like sub $150k HHI), plus we've been funding a savings account with regular transfers from us that we think of as allowance, as well as any money she gets from family for birthdays or holidays. Turns out she's going to wind up with a good chunk of money that we intend to let her use for gap year, post-grad travel, or buying a house. We would not be able to do this if we had two kids because their collective 529s would be pretty much it for us.

I know there are also benefits to having multiple kids and I'm sure others will share those. These threads often become a competition between parents of onlies and parents with multiples and I just want to make it clear in my comment that none of these are criticisms of people with more than one kid. It's just these are the main advantages I have found to being an only.

Anonymous wrote:I have two girls - almost 4 years apart. The 4 years wasn't intentional but just how it worked out. I never wanted or intended to have an only. I have one sibling (brother) and we are reasonably close. I had a blast growing up with him.

I will say that the first years with my first daughter were magical and enjoyable. I have fond memories of that time.

I was honestly worried about having two girls because my experience of that with my girl cousins who were sisters is they HATED each other - and in adulthood are not close. But my girls are close and I am incredible happy they have this bond for life.

I think is totally a personal choice and I have no hangups about onlies. They are different and privileged in a way because they have the sole attention of two grown ups but the ones I've known are normal kids.

I also admit I wanted a sibling for my first child for morbid reasons - God forbid something happen to one of the children. And so that when their father and I die they aren't totally alone.

^^But not to have a child for my child. I wanted a second child.

Anonymous wrote:I have an only child who my everything. My child is a toddler and approaching an age where if I’m going to have another child it needs to be now for them to really be arguably close in age. What does everyone think about having an only child verse two children? Any thoughts and feedback much appreciated. I am looking for exclusively the perspective of The benefits it would have on my child. (not necessarily for my benefit)

Well do you want your child growing up to think they are someone's everything, that they always are first pick, that they are always the most important and then go out into the real world with that mindset. Or do you want them to learn compromise, negotiating, that life isn't always fair, how to get along with others, etc.

I have two girls - almost 4 years apart. The 4 years wasn't intentional but just how it worked out. I never wanted or intended to have an only. I have one sibling (brother) and we are reasonably close. I had a blast growing up with him.

I will say that the first years with my first daughter were magical and enjoyable. I have fond memories of that time.

I was honestly worried about having two girls because my experience of that with my girl cousins who were sisters is they HATED each other - and in adulthood are not close. But my girls are close and I am incredible happy they have this bond for life.

I think is totally a personal choice and I have no hangups about onlies. They are different and privileged in a way because they have the sole attention of two grown ups but the ones I've known are normal kids.

I also admit I wanted a sibling for my first child for morbid reasons - God forbid something happen to one of the children. And so that when their father and I die they aren't totally alone.

Don't have another kid for your kid. Have one because you want one. Adults who were only children and adult who have siblings can all turn out to be functioning members of society. The are benefits and downsides to both. That's just life. And don't make your child your everything - you deserve a life too.

And don't make a child your everything. Very unhealthy for the child too

Don't use one child to benefit another child. You should stick with only

I have an only child who my everything. My child is a toddler and approaching an age where if I’m going to have another child it needs to be now for them to really be arguably close in age. What does everyone think about having an only child verse two children? Any thoughts and feedback much appreciated. I am looking for exclusively the perspective of The benefits it would have on my child. (not necessarily for my benefit)