Is it better to be an only child in the family?
People do not really have a choice as to whether or not they have brothers or sisters. That choice is made by their parents, who decide, for some reasons, to have only one child. Sometimes, it is not even a matter of choice: the parents are not able to have any more children.
Is it better to be an only child or to have brothers and sisters? As with so many issues, there are pros and cons on both sides.
If you are an only child, it is likely that you will have the advantage of getting more attention from your parents than you would otherwise do. In the absence of other children, your parents will have more time to play with you and to read to you.
On the other hand, when you are older, particularly when you are a teenager, you may find that having all your parents’ attention concentrated on you is a distinct disadvantage. The parents of teenagers often show a marked degree of anxiety towards their children. They worry about how well they are doing at school, the kind of friends they have, and how late they stay out-in fact, they worry about practically everything in connection with their children. If you are an only child, all of their anxiety, and indeed all of their hopes, will be entirely focused on you, and this can feel like too great a responsibility.
One advantage of being an only child is that you are likely to have a more affluent upbringing than you would if you had brothers and sisters. Your parents will be able to buy more expensive toys and clothes for you, and they will be able to afford more treats for you. Thus, you are likely to go to the cinema more often, go out for more celebratory meals, and go on more exotic holidays. For this reason, children with several siblings often envy the life of an only child.
One of the major disadvantages of being an only child is that you can be a bit lonely. However, much quality time your parents spend with you, you might wish to spend more time with people of about your own age, people who could join in your games, for example.
Of course, an only child, like a child with siblings, usually has friends with whom he can play, but it is not the same. You may see your friends at school, you may invite them home to tea or you may go to their houses for tea, and you may arrange to do things with them at the weekend, but they are not with you all the time. If you want to play a game or just have some company. your friends might not be there at that particular time. The advantage of siblings is that they are in the same house as you all the time.
Any parent with several children will tell you that siblings tend to argue and quarrel a lot. This can often cause a lack of harmony in the home, but learning to cope with any differences, which you may have with your siblings, can be a valuable lesson later in life. You learn skills and gain experience that may well enable you to deal with difficult colleagues, or even difficult spouses or partners, as you grow older.
We cannot choose whether to have siblings or not. All we can do is to make the best of the situation with which we are presented.
