There are a lot of ideas about what it's like to be an only child from the sibling crowd. The most well-known is that we're spoiled; we get everything we want and are completely selfish. The others range from not being able to get along with others to being lonely losers. The reality is that those issues come from parenting, not from the number of siblings you have and as an only child, I can proudly say that my experience was different. I can also very securely say that I wouldn't change my sibling status for anything because being an only child has certainly defined my life in the best way possible. Here's why being an only child is the absolute greatest:
1. Bored is never in our vocabulary.
From your earliest years, you learn to play by yourself and to entertain yourself - which is a skill that will benefit you throughout your life. When your parents are busy, you learn how to create your own play system, which is proven to increase intelligence. We have just as much fun hanging out with other people as we do going on an adventure by ourselves because we've been doing it since we were toddlers.
2. We're more creative.
Yeah, only children are alone sometimes and that's okay because like I said above, we learn to create our own play systems. This means from day one we are coming up with random ways to entertain ourselves. We don't have an older sibling to show us how they like to play, we have to come up with it on our own. This opens us to naturally think outside the box as we get older.
3. We self-compete AKA we will always push ourselves.
Only children have a unique bond with their parents and due to the exaggerated attention on us, we are more likely to want to impress our parents and do whatever we can to make them proud. Additionally, we have no one to compete with but because of this strong desire to make our parents proud, we will compete with ourselves everyday to do more and be better. A lot of people lose their drive when they have no one pushing them but we will always work against ourselves.
4. We know how to respect people's privacy and space.
If there's one thing that only children get, it's privacy and personal space. We never had to share a room or share anything that was deemed our own which means we value others respecting our things and we will value respecting your things. We definitely won't be the kind of roommates to take your things without asking.
5. We are comfortable around adults from an early age.
Our parents are probably our closest friends and the people that we spend the most time with throughout our life which means we spent a lot of time with our parents friends as well. We were raised around adults and adult conversation so we tend to be wise beyond our years which means it can sometimes be harder to connect to kids our own age but we have an upper hand when it's time to act like an adult since we have been doing it for years.
6. We know how to handle things on our own.
If our parents weren't around, we had to figure our problems out on our own. Independence should be right next to only child in the dictionary because this is the key to understanding who we are. Our parents would be there to help us but for the most part we had to handle it on our own from a young age which yet again makes the "real world" a lot less daunting.
7. We know how to take responsibility for our actions.
Break mom's favorite plant? Yeah, there's no one to blame but you so you pretty much are forced into taking responsibility for your mistakes from an early age. Not the easiest skill to learn but beneficial nonetheless.
8. We take friendship seriously.
Your best friends become your siblings for the most part, they come with you on vacation and are more likely to be let over for dinner every night. You treat your friends like family and your parents treat them the same way.
9. We are comfortable with attention and who we are.
We were never compared to anyone else growing up--- we got to grow up completely as an individual, which means we learned to love who we are from a lot earlier of an age. We definitely did get a lot of attention and it's pretty likely that we love the spotlight but that's not a bad thing, it just means we're okay with being ourselves and standing out.
10. Our parents are our best friends.
This is the best thing about being an only child by far, it is why we wouldn't change our sibling status for anything. We get to have a bond with our parents that just doesn't happen so often for people with siblings. Every week night and weekend is spent hanging out with your parents, they truly are your best friends. They treat you like an equal and raise you with an equal voice which means you are more likely to give others an equal voice throughout your life. It means you get to have real conversations with your parents that your friends just aren't comfortable having with theirs. Having parents who are your best friends is truly the most special thing in this world.
I'm sure that having siblings is amazing too and there are certainly a lot of things that I don't understand because of my lack of sibling hood but being an only child isn't a sentence to being a selfish and friendless jerk either. Being an only child is unique and special and I wouldn't change it for the world.
