SINGLE CHILD FAMILY

 SINGLE CHILD FAMILY

At the moment we have one child he is 5 mths old. We have been wondering if we should have more children or not. This is a dilemma for us as we are concerned about our finances, how to educate, clothe and feed. If we had

So what does a one child family mean? To be an only child. It is exactly as it says. A family with one child. A child with 2 parents or 1 parent with one child.

The questions that we ask ourselves about being a single child family are: Is it fair on the child to not have any siblings? Will the child become selfish, bossy, attention seeking, unhappy, spoilt and unpopular? The good thing for us is that the latest research has found that this is largely untrue.

The research also says that there are advantages to being a one child family. Some of these are:

• Our child may be more motivated with schoolwork and sports etc..
• Our Child may have a higher self esteem.
• Our child’s relationship may be better with us as there is more one on one attention.
• Our child may be advanced in speaking / talking
• Our child will learn to play by him/her self and learn to do things on his/her own easier than if there were siblings
• Our child will most likely prefer the peace and quiet as they age.

We know that all children are different and their development varies, personalities stem from parents and how they are bought up and what the household is like.

There are also some disadvantages to being a one child family. Some of them are:

• Our child may find it harder to make friends
• Our child may be lonely
• Our child may always be treated like an adult instead of the child they are.
• Our expectations may be too high for our child.

What can be done about all this? There are several things:

1. We can place our child in childcare so he/she can learn to get along with others and share and make friends.
2. We can endeavour to have our child’s friends over to play
3. We can make sure that we holiday were there are other children or group activities
4. We can encourage sports or other team activities such as music groups

As parents why not let your child join scouts or brownies?

The key is not to push our child into too much group activity he/she may want to do an activity alone. Reading or art etc..

So being an only child is not all that bad. Some may love it others may hate being an only child, but certain circumstances may make it that way.

As parents we shouldn’t feel guilty about having one child. There is nothing wrong with it. An only child can be a happy well adjusted person. There is no right or wrong, about it. Parents do not have to “keep up with the Jones”.

So we still don’t know what we are going to do and it is still open for discussion. My partner and I will make our decision after Christmas. whatever we decided we know that at least we have given it a lot of thought and research.