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• Only Child Syndrome Doesn't Explain Octo-Mom

  I thought I'd heard all the reasons I was doing something wrong by keeping my child an only . . . until Nadya Suleman popped up with her octuplets and her big-mouthed Mom. Angela Suleman says her daughter decided to have fourteen kids via sperm donation and IVF with no viable means of supporting them because she wasn't happy with being an only child. So being an only child makes you an irresponsible adult with a mothering complex? If that's true, it would stand to reason that every kid denied the sibling they wanted would be out making familes of Suleman proportions. How many of them do you know? Yeah, me neither. Read More... Posted Feb 10 2009, 02:55 PM by JeanneSager with | with 15 comment(s) Filed under: only children, siblings, Jeanne Sager, only child, octuplets, Nadya Suleman, one and done, immature mother, living through your kids, replacement kids, one and only

• Do You Let Your Kids Cheat?

  My in-laws came to town for the requisite weekend of spoiling, and left as always, some new habits with my daughter.  The artificial southern accent will go away soon enough (to my displaced southern husband's chagrin). It's the cheating I'm worried about. Read More... Posted Jan 25 2009, 03:55 PM by JeanneSager with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: games, behavior, grandparents, playtime, funny, cards, Cheating, cute kids, in-laws, obnoxious, Jeanne Sager, only child, spoiling kids, spoiled, cheating at cards

• One, Two, Three, Four: Birth Order

  As a firstborn married to a youngest child, I am a huge believer that we are shaped by our birth order. For example, not only am I an oldest but almost all of my female friends are as well, or are only children. All my guy friends are the youngest in their families with one exception, and he and I clash a lot because guess what! Two oldest-child control freaks sometimes butt heads! I think firstborns are generally more driven and more articulate (and okay, bossy), because we spent our earliest years around mostly adults.  Youngest children tend to be easygoing, social and have a certain degree of "star quality" since they get fussed over for being the baby and grow to like the spotlight. According to this story, (although this one's more interesting) parents also have higher expectations of firstborns, compared with their later-born siblings.  Read More... Posted Sep 09 2008, 04:07 PM by Amy Kuras with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: birth order, time, social skills, spoiling, only child, oldest child, youngest child, achievement, sociability

• How tough is it to be an only child in China?

  So you think you've got pressure? Try being an only child. Then add to that the fact that your parents can't have any more children – BY LAW. Robert Siegel from NPR spent some time with an only child in China, before the devastating earthquake. The piece goes a long way towards confirming the stereotype of the overworked Asian child and parents who push them to study non-stop. "Like other Chinese high school students, she typically rises at 6:30 a.m., hits the books at 7:30 a.m. and doesn't knock off until 9:30 p.m." Sounds fun. Another component of only-childness is indulging certain desires Read More... Posted May 30 2008, 01:00 PM by Brett Singer with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: parenting, news, school, China, NPR, siblings, Brett Singer, only child, earthquake, chinese

• Babble Talk: One Might Not Be the Loneliest Number

  Jeanne Sager has written a lovely essay for Babble about the pleasure -- and relief -- that comes from deciding to have just one child. "Parents of multiple children always act like they know something I don't," she writes. "Their eyes take on a look of pity when I say, 'Jillian's my one and only.' Apparently women are supposed to want babies. When they're done popping out the first one, they're supposed to be working on the second. I guess I didn't get the memo." I suspect there are plenty of women and men who also failed to be cc'd (or bcc'd) on that same memo. Read More... Posted Apr 23 2008, 11:02 AM by Jen Chaney with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: babble talk, one child, Jeanne Sager, personal essay, only child