I’m an solely baby. Saying this generally appears like a confession – not least when folks 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 instructor 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 baby.
For over a century, we now have been seen as odd, at finest; delinquent, neurotic and narcissistic, at worst. “Being an only child is a disease in itself,” declared Nineteenth-century baby 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 turn into extra frequent because the 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, almost half of all households with kids have only one baby.
Regardless of their rising recognition, one-child households proceed to come across a long-held view that this association is one way or the other dangerous. Luckily, delving into up to date analysis can supply a level of readability – and it hints that being an solely baby can include stunning outcomes. The findings might supply some reassurance for one-and-done mother and father and people nonetheless debating what number of…
