All those who have grown up only children know that it was both a blessing and a curse being the loners in life. You were never woken up to the shrieking cries of younger siblings at night, you never had to share the attention, and all eyes were always on you. But then again nights were pretty lonely, your parents knew every single solitary detail about your life, and it was all about you (no pressure). The sibling bond everyone always speaks of is obviously nonexistent and you had to figure everything out for yourself… from how to avoid getting yelled at to making a social life in school. Us only children are a special breed, we know the joys of being alone but also appreciate the company of people. We have space to ourselves and form bonds with other family members that can’t be broken (I really love my dog). But here are a few basic things all only children know about growing up solo.

It’s a pretty lonely life.

Coming home to an empty house got pretty lonely and boring, not going to lie. But in all honesty, you had the house to yourself… you lived the life. Yeah, sometimes I wished I had someone else to play with, but it would have been so much effort to explain and compromise all the rules with someone else. It was just me, no explaining needed. The quiet house made for a world of imagination. Sometimes the loneliness probably got the best of you and you started talking to your stuffed animals… but hey, someone had to listen.

You never had to worry about being the favorite.

You never had to share attention with any siblings and no matter what you did, in the end you never lost your number one spot with your parents. Even if you really did screw up, your parents had no choice but to forgive you, I mean, there was only one of you… who else were they going to love? You turned out so perfect, your parents decided they only needed one. All attention was constantly on you and Christmas was probably your favorite holiday (got gifts?). The “favorite” position was perpetually yours, and you completely milked it.

You don’t have anyone to blame when things go wrong.

Since you didn’t have anyone else around, if things went wrong there was only one person to look to. Your parents immediately knew it was you, because there was literally no one else they could blame. I mean, you could try to blame the dog but that never really worked anyways. It probably got to the point where you just accepted it… you mess up, it was all on you.

You appreciate being alone and being with people.

Only children understand the value of being alone since there was never anyone to be with in the first place. But then that helped to know the value of being with people and sharing company. Always being alone got pretty tiring, so when real life humans actually came around it was pretty exciting. As much as we only children like being with people, we grew up with our own space and we get to the point where we definitely need it, so give it to us.

You always had a room and bathroom (and closet) to yourself.

Being the only one meant never sharing a bedroom. Or a bathroom. And a lot of extra closet space. Everything was yours and yours only, and you never had anyone in your space. No one came in to steal your clothes and you had the entire bathroom to get ready in. It was a luxury not known by many.

Your extended family understood... and they were there for you.

Cousins made the best of friends since on the daily you were a complete loner. When family events came around, you finally had someone to share in the craziness of your family and could talk about the pointless crap you would tell a sibling if you had one. They saw your loneliness firsthand and were always there to fill in the empty space.

In all honesty, the life of an only child proved to be a struggle at times… but we all know we wouldn’t have wanted to grow up any other way.