Anyone parenting an only child?

[Sister Honey Bunch]

I just published a post about it tonight. My son has been asking when we will have another baby. We won't.

I would love any insight to parenting an only. He's in school during the week, but by Saturday night he's sick of me and his dad and wants someone his size to wrestle and play Ninja Turtles with.

[Karen in AK]

I'm parenting an only, but she's only 4. I was an only, my husband was an only, so I guess it's nothing new for either of us.

Our daughter, strangely enough, has never asked about siblings. Other than to say that she doesn't want any, which works out well, because I CAN'T have anymore (I wanted a dozen or so).

Can you schedule "play dates" for the weekend, to keep him entertained on the weekends? I often schedule play dates for MY sanity :) Or can you get him involved in some sort of weekend activity? (karate, hockey, soccer, boy scouts, etc.) that gets him lots of interaction with kids his age?

[KaPink]

We have an older child that is an only. It's sad but there are so many stereotypes regarding onlies. (Just like there are ones involving oldest, youngest, etc.) She's always been expected to behave appropriately and respect others. When I hear the 'you'd never guess she was an only child' remark I want to cringe. The funniest thing is that I've observed that she has more household duties and responsibilities than her peers with siblings. Which most would guess would be the other way around. She's even realized one bonus to being an only is that she can always have a friend along when we do fun things. Since we only have one there's always plenty of extra room and patience. :) She never really asked 'why' when she was younger. We've always taught her that it's sometimes a personal decision to have one and other times it's beyond the parent's control.

[Absolutely Bananas]

great topic. this is a big challenge for us as we never intended to have only one child, but somehow it has worked out that way. CJ went through a stage where he was asking for a baby or a brother and it totally ate me up. But then he stopped and overall he really seems quite content. Every family structure has its pros and cons, and being an only can be great in the amount of mom and dad's attention that they get!

A big thing for me is to put time and energy into developing his friendships and setting up lots of playdates so he gets that child interaction. Preschool helps with that too!

[Dawn]

I'm a biological only, my husband is an only, it's v. possible Alex will be an only. We figure he's going to be spending time with cousins and finding him a summer camp to form bonds at (it's what hubs and I did).

[Kelly]

This is a great discussion and thank you for starting it. I too am going through the same thing with my daughter. She tells me she wants me to have 2 children not just one. She gets tons of social interaction with her peers, but I think there is a wanting that she sees with her friends that have siblings.

I was a fertility patient and having a second did not work (we tried again). So it is hard and even heartbreaking for me when she asks. I don't know if I am giving her a good answer, but I tell her that sometimes things just work out like this in life and no matter what more than anything we love her and she will always be our special girl.