I Highly Recommend Being an Only Child

There are virtually no cons to growing up as an only child as far as I'm concerned. I know because I was one. But for me it was even cooler because I was the only child of a single mother. I had a great childhood because I got a lot of positive attention from my mother and my doting aunts and uncles that all those less fortunate kids with siblings could only dream about. I felt special. I even liked being a latchkey kid, especially as I got older. Sometimes I'd come home from school and put LPs and 45s on the hi-fi and blast the music, singing and dancing all over the house like an American Idol wannabe. Or I'd take advantage of the solitude to read as much as I wanted. I was a natural born loner, so only childhood was right up my alley.

The pros of growing up as an only child were obvious to me: I got a lot of stuff, particularly at Christmas and on birthdays; I had my own room, with lots of mental and physical space to explore; I got more feedback from adults when I had a problem; and I didn't have to wear hand-me-downs or share toys with siblings. I was self-centered, but in a productive way. When I felt like being around other kids, I had my friends to play with. And when I grew up, all the freedom I had as a child morphed into a highly independent mind and a totally unique life.

OK, I'll admit that being an only child is not 100% positive. Nothing is. You may find that your parents put more pressure on you to succeed in life because you're the only kid they have to pick on. And, fair or not, there's no other siblings running interference for you when they punish you for doing something wrong. As an adult, your background as an only child can lead to a distaste for competition that may create tension when competing with others is unavoidable. You may also develop a lifelong hypersensitivity to the sometimes sadistic social games people play. And you'll probably never really get used to sharing a bedroom, apartment or house with another person. Not to mention hating to have to take a number and stand in line with all the other hungry customers at the neighborhood Subway's.

But all that is really nitpicking. The pros beat out the cons when it comes to being "The One and Only". In short, only children tend to be smarter and more self-reliant than kids who grow up with brothers and sisters, life skills that really come in handy. So if you can possibly arrange it, I highly recommend growing up as an only child.