hench wrote:artsy, taciturn, bookish, and quite social occasionally. autocratic and highly detail-oriented too. also, stay out of my room!

i'm a middle child and most of these things.

I think being an only made me a shitty room/housemate. I'm all done with college and I never want to living with another person with whom I'm not madly in love with, and even then I'd still be a little hesitant.

eephour wrote:I think being an only made me a shitty room/housemate. I'm all done with college and I never want to living with another person with whom I'm not madly in love with, and even then I'd still be a little hesitant.

I'm with you. Since I graduated college, mI have never lived with anyone who was not my significant other. Why on earth would you? I know the answer--economics--but I value private space and solitude more than I do the perceived benefits of platonic cohabitation.

I'm an only child and an only grandchild. I have been described as "shockingly functional."

Not Crap.

i'm in a weird middle ground with this subject...

i have an older sister who is 8 years my senior and she left home around the time i was coming into my teens so our paths haven't intersected very much in my life...i had another older sister but she died as an infant and i've always wondered what that would've been like and how the dynamics would've changed...she would've been the middle child...

but i've mostly grown up alone...i like my alone time...growing up alone wasn't a bad thing...it was growing up alienated by other people that sucked...

i'm artistic, outgoing and very sociable, but i also stay to myself because i'm comfortable that way...and when it comes to art and music i have to be alone in order to let things gestate and happen...

What about practical considerations? Maybe all the only kids out there have parents who don't give them any cause for concern or that they don't care about, but I have often considered the probability that the emotional burden on the only children I know re their folks must be pretty high. Two very good friends of mine, both only kids, have gone through situations (parental illness/ bereavement) where they have been very much alone in their grief/ concern, it makes me very grateful I have my two older brothers to help out. Over the last few years there've been alot of family situations where the simple fact of us being able to take turns visiting/ helping out has made things alot easier for all concerned, although I suppose 3 kids is 3 times the worry for our parents too.. As an aside, in China now there's basically a whole generation of only children due to the one child per couple law, that must make for some interesting social observations right there!


PS Also if you have siblings you get to be an uncle/aunt which can be pretty awesome. So I'm afraid I vote crap on it despite lots of my friends being only children who I think are alright.

i always wished i had a sibling or two (i do but they are half and i don't really know them). lots of alone time, too much really, and no one to share being mad at with. being an only child helped me decide that if i ever have or adopt kids, there'll be at least two.

siblings: over rated.

I never really thought about this shit. I have an older brother and a younger brother, but most of the time I hang around my friends instead of them.

I've learned to not be selfish and share shit, I guess, from having to grow up with two assholes that are exactly like myself.

If I was an only child I would probably be a bigger piece of shit than I already am.

AnthonyVillalobos wrote:I never really thought about this shit. I have an older brother and a younger brother, but most of the time I hang around my friends instead of them.

I've learned to not be selfish and share shit, I guess, from having to grow up with two assholes that are exactly like myself.

If I was an only child I would probably be a bigger piece of shit than I already am.

if i were slightly more eloquent i'd have written this post.