Only Child In A World Of Siblings

Being an unwed mother of an only child (and that whole phrase bugs me), it did occur to me from time-to-time that I would like to give my daughter a little brother or sister.  But due to circumstances and life events, that never happened.  And I’m okay with that, and so is my daughter.  We’ve talked about the situation every once in a while with wistfulness.  For the most part though, the only/single mom combo works for us.   So imagine my surprise, when I decided to write on this particular subject, when I discovered findings from a famed psychologist, G. Stanley Hall.  Bear in mind, these findings were in the early 1900’s, and the thinking is a bit archaic.  Or at least in my mind it is.

Dr. Hall said “Being an only child is a disease in itself” and I am forever thankful that a) I wasn’t a mother back in 1907, and b) I wasn’t a patient of Dr. Hall’s.  Dr. Hall stated that only children were “doomed to become selfish narcissists”.   Now, while I do agree to some extent that only children may be a wee bit more selfish, based upon my own child, a narcissist she is not.  I’m not saying that she does not have one of the healthiest egos I’ve ever encountered; she actually does possess an overabundance of self. And I think this is a plus rather than a minus.  

There are many traits that only children have, good and bad.  But a lot of them are false. I have put together a list for you on the next page:

Next Page »