If you are an only child please open-quick question

I have the benefit of being both an only child and the eldest child. My baby sister was born the year before I graduated high school. There are 17 years between our ages and we have no siblings in between us. Currently, I am 28 and she is 11.

Growing up I really appreciated being an only child. I don't remember feeling lonely at all. I had a close bond to both of my parents, especially my mom, and it continues to this day. I talk to both of my parents at least once per week. I was able to try every sport and after school activity from Girl Scouts to softball to bowling to teen court. I never had to share time with my parents with another sibling and all of my accomplishments were grandly celebrated.

As an adult I miss the potential bond I could have had with a sibling. It does sadden me to think that when my parents die I won't have any other close family members to spend holidays with. You cannot guarantee that your kids will get along as children much less adults but it would be nice to have a sister closer to my age that I could call up and laugh about something silly my mom did (like dye her hair red!) It also would be nice to have a sibling to share the responsibility of taking care of my parents when they are older; again, you cannot guarantee that a sibling will have money or want to help out.

As my sister gets older we share a special bond that is closer to a cool, younger aunt and niece than sisters. We had a recent phone conversation where our mom was in the background yelling at my sister about packing for vacation. My mom and my sister disagree on outfits to pack for vacation and both of them stubborn as mules so they argue back and forth constantly. I asked my sister if she knew the secret to getting mom to stop yelling. She said she didn't. I told her to stop arguing and agree with the outfits mom picked out for the vacation. Then when mom has calmed down and goes to pack her own bag, I told my sister to pick three or four outfits and stuff them in the bottom of her bag. She laughed.

So long as having another child isn't going to cause major financial trouble and you make sure to celebrate both children's accomplishments and special qualities equally, I don't see the downside to having more than one child. Not to say having an only child is a bad idea because I don't know that I could personally handle more than one child.

I love being an only child.

I find I have a really good relationship with my Mum because all her attention was on me, we know everything about each other and I was her main focus

*This is just personal experience.

Not an only child, and please don't be offended, but IME only children have a problem with being entitled. I just got out of a 3 year realtionship with one. a 29 year old man, didn't know how to stand on his own two feet without his mommy and daddy helping him and they "SHOULD DAMN IT!"

That depends totally on the parents though. I was taught that I needed to do it on my own. I have never asked for help and dont think I would take it if offered.

i have one child and i love it, but im debating on having one more or not ! will be stalking this thread

It was good as a child - no sharing, all the attention on me, etc. but now that I'm older it's harder. My mom died a year ago and I really wished I had someone to share that burden with besides my dad.

I am an only child and I learned to entertain myself. I always did wish I had a sibling though. When I have kids, I'm going to have two. Though, it wasn't terrible being an only child. You get all the attention. But if you did something bad, you couldn't blame it on anyone else.

I had both worlds, I was the only child of my parents but when they divorced I got three step-siblings. It was pretty nice to be an only child. Undivided attention and resources. I wouldn't be able to tell you what it woulda been like to have blood siblings living with me every day. 6 years is a good gap though, one will be out of college before you have to worry about the other one going .

This is a question that is impossible to answer because I only know my own experience. Was being an only child great? Sure. Would having siblings make it better? Who knows, because I didn't have any. I can't speak about what didn't happen. You know what made childhood great? Having awsome parents.

I was an only child and would have loved a sibling. There were other, more significant problems in my family, and in the end I'm glad my parents didn't have more children just to spare other humans the nightmare that is my mom, but in a normal situation it would have helped disperse the attention from me as a single child. The pressure was really on for me: I was their only offspring, so I kind of had to be perfect, and never got enough recognition for the good things I did do (my fantastic grades, my amazing AP exam scores, my Editor-in-Chief position at my high school newspaper, my captaincy for Varsity Golf, my acceptance to Berkeley--it was all expected and never considered particularly exceptional).

I have found that into adulthood, i have stayed a loner because i was always with my mom and more mature for my age than most of my friends with siblings. We plan on giving our daughter a sibling one day, just gotta there lol

I can agree that, since I'm an only child and I was home schooled for a good part of my life, I was pretty much always with my mom. Having a sibling would have been nice though.

is there an option for "i wish i didn't have any siblings... and i wasn't an only child"... j/k, joking. i love my siblings. but i know plenty of people who don't so it works the other way too.
actually none of my siblings are very close to each other into adulthood and we all live very far away from each other. so i don't think having lots of siblings ensures anything about what kind of relationship your kids will have. i think seeing each other every day, having to play with each other, we got kind of tired of it.
i never got anything being 1 of 5. i wish i could have had more and always envied other girls who got more clothes, toys, etc. and i always had to babysit and never could make my own plans without considering the rest of the family. we never had enough to go around and i always felt like i had to do without and couldn't have what my friends had.
so i think whether you are an only or one of multipes you may like it or hate it. you may be close or not be close. my husband was an only child, he loved it. so i don't really think you can base a decision off of what other people think. everyone is different.
and i dont' think only children are "entitled"... sure, some are, but others aren't. generalizing just isn't a good idea.
oh and for those who are onlies and are saying "i wish i had a sibling" maybe it would have been awesome, maybe not. you just never know.

My son is an only child. He'll be 5 in October. So far, there have been no requests for a sibling. However, if there are requests, we'll have to sit down with him and let him know that it's not a possibility now as daddy got the snip back in December. lol

Do what you guys decide is best.

I am an adopted, only child. I did have more things growing up with two working parents and only one child but summer vacations at home or traveling were a bit lonely with no one to play with. I did have to learn as an adult for things to not be all about me. My parents were educators and they did not dote on me but since it was just me, it was about my recital, my Camp Fire meeting, my choir practice, my summer camp, my schedule many, many times. I was very close to my cousins growing up but as adults and since the grands are gone, we just don't seem to get together much anymore. I was lucky to make a couple of very dear friends at a young age and we are still best of friends. These women are in every sense my sisters. I was lonely many times but I did learn to entertain myself. I did have a large family myself and though it has been financially challenging at times we have a great time together and I am now blessed with 4 grandchildren of my own and 4 step-grandchildren, with two of my children just starting their twenties (22 & 23) so I expect there could be more little blessings to come. Oh and P.S. I did get to meet some of by birth syblings and I do see them from time to time so I really had the best of both worlds. Hope all this doesn't make the decision harder. Trust yourself and know that 1 child or two or more, as long as they are loved and cared for you can't go wrong.