So, I'm an only child. I never thought much about that when I was kid. It wasn't until I started going through school and realizing that in this day and age, it's slightly uncommon (depending on where you live). Most of my friends started complaining about their siblings and I could not relate. I never understood why they hated their siblings so much because I always thought the idea of having someone always there would be nice. It's quite lonely growing up as an only child. You may not think so, but it is. There's certain things that some people take for granted. My best friend growing up had a brother a couple of years younger than her and she was always complaining about having to babysit him. Sure, I can understand not wanting to babysit, but I like having people around. Growing up as an only child means that you sit at home and wait for your parents to come home and then figuring out what to do with dinner. Apparently, having a sibling means fighting with your sibling(s) 24/7 and getting yelled at by your parents. One thing I have that different from some of my friends is that I have a fantastic relationship with my parents. Now, this isn't to say that my friends have bad relationships or that it's because I'm an only child, but I've found that my parents and I have a trust with one another that my other friends don't have. My parents and I hardly fought and even now, we don't fight that much. But I almost feel that with certain friends, they were constantly fighting with their siblings and therefore got into more trouble with their parents, so their relationships have changed. Of course, this is all coming from a person who's never had a sibling growing up, so I could be completely wrong. I also really have problems with people making stereotypes about only children--especially people who aren't only children. First of all, we're not spoiled. The whole idea of us being spoiled comes from the fact that we don't have other people to share our toys with. We get toys and things that we want because we aren't competing for our parents attention. Second of all, we're not all selfish. It's not fair to say that all people are selfish so why would it be fair to say that all only children are selfish? Maybe as children, it's more understandable. Yes, we grow up not having to share, so that may transfer over to school and things of that nature, but eventually a child will mature and grow out of that. I have a lot of problems with people telling me, as an 18-year-old, that I'm selfish just because I'm an only child. I just wish that all of the stereotypes surrounding being only children would go away (all stereotypes in general), but I know that's not going to happen. I hope that for some people, this clears up a lot of thoughts about only children.
