Society always asks that couple with one child, "when will he have a brother or sister?" Well, some might have an actual answer to that. "After he's potty trained," or, "after we get him into school." However, not everyone can answer that. People might not want to give their kid a sibling...or can't. In my parents' case, that was it. First of all, I wasn't even planned (surprise!), but my mom's doctor deemed the pregnancy high risk after some complications. Mom wanted more kids, but was told by the doctor that it wasn't recommended.
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When I was younger, I did want siblings. I wanted someone to play with. But at the same time, I wasn't too big on sharing with others. In order to play with siblings, sharing is pretty important. Of course, it is important with friends and cousins, but I didn't see them 24/7. So, I wasn't used to sharing all the time. I'm still not.
Now that I'm older, I don't mind sharing with other people. However, I do have a hang up with sharing a living space with others. This is why I live at home, and not in the dorms on campus because I hate to share like that. The thought of sharing a bathroom with an entire floor just irks me. With my preferred activity of speech and debate, I have to share a hotel room with people. I don't have a problem with that at all, because it's temporary. I've even shared in the past with camping or any other kind of travel, and had no problems. But, if it weren't temporary, I feel like it would be a difficult adjustment for me. I like to know the person well that I'm sharing with.
I certainly want kids in my future. I've said that I want at least one, but no more than three. However, I've been on the fence. I'd love for my child to grow up with the experience I had. My parents only had me to worry about, so I had both of their attention. This helped me because I'm not afraid to be in the center of attention. They really invested their time into raising me. They would play with me growing up, but at the same time, I also learned how to entertain myself. It's a pretty important skill that not many people have. I really enjoy my solitude when I get the chance.
My parents are able to go the extra mile in a few areas, such as helping me pay for college (kind of hard to do that with multiple kids), teaching me different things, and traveling (a family of 3 to Disney World is much cheaper than a family of 6). Really, anything extra that they had, I also had. I won't have to feud with siblings over helping my parents when they become elderly, or when they plan wills. I'll have trouble deciding what to do with all of the random stuff I'll inherit, but that's a long time off from now. I've never had to worry about a sibling taking my stuff without permission. I've never had to worry about fighting with one. It's almost always been peace and quiet for me.
I want my child to feel like he/she is loved and not have to worry about his/her parents playing favorites with a sibling. I want him/her to feel taken care of. I don't want him/her to feel like a babysitter for any younger siblings. I also feel that quality over quantity is important. I'd rather have one well rounded, well behaved, bright, kind hearted child, instead of 3 "average" children. Playing mediator between feuding siblings is annoying. I'd rather not do this kind of thing for multiple kids. People make way too many false assumptions about only children.
I've had friends and peers tell me how lucky I am to be an only child. I just might have to agree with them.
