I’m an solely little one. Saying this generally appears like a confession – not least when individuals reply with a well-meaning “oh, you don’t seem like it!”. Now, because the mom of a preschooler, I see my daughter navigating the identical assumptions. “Does she have older siblings?” one trainer requested just lately. “She plays so well with the other kids!”
If it looks as if I’m bragging about my (or my daughter’s) behaviour, you’ll have to excuse me: I’m, in any case, an solely little one.
For over a century, we’ve got been seen as odd, at greatest; delinquent, neurotic and narcissistic, at worst. “Being an only child is a disease in itself,” declared Nineteenth-century little one psychologist Granville Stanley Corridor.
Whether or not there are literally any variations between the personalities and well-being of singleton kids and people with siblings stays a contentious query – one given contemporary impetus by the rising development of one-and-done parenting.
Single-child households have change into extra widespread for the reason that Nineteen Seventies in high-income international locations, together with the US and UK, whether or not “by constraint or by choice”, says Éva Beaujouan, a demographer on the College of Vienna, Austria. In Europe, practically half of all households with kids have only one little one.
Regardless of their rising recognition, one-child households proceed to come across a long-held view that this association is by some means dangerous. Luckily, delving into modern analysis can supply a level of readability – and it hints that being an solely little one can include stunning outcomes. The findings could supply some reassurance for one-and-done mother and father and people nonetheless debating what number of…
