I'm An Only Child, And Here Are 19 Common Misconceptions Everyone Seems To Have About My Childhood
Hi, my name is Angelica, and I'm an only child. 👋🏼 When people find out about this, they tend to get curious. So, for the sake of only children fielding these sometimes strange, sometimes invasive questions all the time, I figured I'd answer some right here to set the record straight.
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Also, a gentle reminder that I can only share my experience as an only child, and this probably doesn't reflect what it's like for every single one of us. So do with that what you will!
Here are the answers to 19 things people are often curious about:
1.Sometimes watching people interact with their siblings kinda freaks us out.
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I don't exactly know how to act around siblings when they're fighting (or even interacting, TBH). You all can go from fighting to being totally chill and doing each other favors within 0.05 seconds, and it kinda gives me whiplash.
2.No, not all only children wish they'd had a sibling.
When I was younger, my parents asked me if I wanted a little sibling. Without much hesitation I said no then, and honestly, my answer is still the same now. I knew what I was about.
3.Sometimes I get asked who I played make believe with when I was a kid, or if I played all the characters myself. The truth is, being an only child makes us really good at giving a one-person show.
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Whether it's singing all the parts in one song or delivering a dramatic monologue, there was no need for a supporting cast here.
4.Pets are absolutely considered siblings and, yes, they are 100% the favorite child.
To be fair, they can't talk back!
5.Being an only child means getting really good at finding ways to entertain ourselves literally anywhere.
When lockdowns started at the beginning of the pandemic, I felt like a lifetime of being an only child and an introvert had prepared me to find literally every way to keep myself busy. You learn to always travel with a book, have lots of playlists good for wandering around to, and always have an emergency movie on your phone.
6.Yeah, it does get annoying when people tell us that things we do "makes sense" because we're only children.
I'd like to think I don't have an aggressive tell-tale only child energy, but sometimes I'll do something seemingly insignificant and be met with, "Oh, that makes sense" or "you're such an only child" reaction that I never quite know how to respond to.
7.One misconception people tend to have is that it's so much easier to be an only child, because you don't have a sibling to be compared to all the time.
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While I'll never quite understand the little sibling struggle of being in a class your older sibling had and always being confused/compared to them, we definitely still get compared to other people by teachers or parents all the time. Sometimes that just means that instead of a sibling it's a friend, which does get awkward sometimes.
8.Since we don't have siblings to randomly bother, that honor tends to fall onto our parents.
I have been told it is a Thing™️ to randomly walk into a sibling's room and just stand in the doorway or come in and bug them just for fun?? Sometimes I'm asked what the only child equivalent of that is — and for me personally — that honor was graced upon my parents or our pets, ominous doorway standing and all.
9.Sure we won't ~technically~ ever be an uncle or aunt, but that doesn't mean we won't be the honorary cool uncle/aunt of all our friends' kids.
10.Yes, we get invasive questions about why we're only children and yes, you should stop asking us about it.
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A lot of of the time when people find out I'm an only child, they ask questions about why. Did I not want siblings? Was I a handful as a child and my parents didn't want more kids? Could they not have more kids? Did they try to? Was your childhood deeply and endlessly lonely? Do me a favor and don't ask people things like this, please and thanks.
11.We don't have a built-in buddy for trips or vacations, but we do generally get the whole bed or backseat to ourselves.
This, I think, is the trade-off of being an only child. Sure trips can get a little boring sometimes, but it was definitely a lot easier because I could play whatever movie I wanted and and didn't have to share my Nintendo DS.
12.I've noticed that because many of us grew up mostly around adults/people older than us, "only children" tend to get along better with people that are older than we are.
I didn't really grow up with kids my age in the family, and I just kinda got used to being around adults a lot of the time. I've spoken to other older children about this, and have noticed that often times, we tend to get along with people who are older than us better than people who are our age. Even now, most of my friends are older than I am. I was 100% the friend who would have a conversation with a buddy's parents for a while when I first got to their house to hang out.
13.Having your own bedroom is definitely an only child perk, but it does make it extra spooky at night.
There is nobody else for the monsters under your bed to get, y'all.
14.Actually, being an only child puts a lot more pressure on you.
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There's nobody else to share the attention and pressure with, and sometimes that means you feel like you're under a lot of stress to succeed.
15.In my opinion, being an only child makes us learn how to be a little more creative and imaginative.
Listen, you've got a lot of time to kill sometimes. Whether it's on a family vacation or impatiently waiting to do something at home, I think we're pretty good at turning seemingly nothing into something interesting to do. Sometimes that means coming up with an incredibly and unnecessarily complicated game to play, and other times it means making up characters and backstories for random people you pass on the street.
16.Sometimes we need a little extra alone time to rest and recharge, because it's what we're used to.
I genuinely have no idea how people with siblings are just...around each other all the time. How do y'all do it??
17.A lot of us didn't grow up around babies or little kids, so they 100% freak us out and we have zero idea what to do around them.
Please, don't hand me your baby. I'm sure they're great, but I'm definitely not used to being around them and will be endlessly awkward about it. I'm sure this isn't true of all only children (particularly if you grew up with younger cousins), but I've definitely shared the face of Only Child Panic™️ with another only child when someone else's baby is around.
18.Most of your assumptions about being an only child are wrong, TBH.
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People always assume it's way better or worse than it is. Every time I read or hear something people with siblings say about only children, they tend to think in extremes. Sure it got lonely sometimes, but it's not like we're totally isolated from other people. It's not that dramatic.
19.And finally, a lot of questions I get about being an only child can be answered by saying this: for us, friends basically fulfill the roles your siblings do for you.
For some reason, a lot of times when people ask me questions about being an only child, they act like not having siblings meant I was always alone and never consider the fact that friends exist. Most of the time, the things that you would do with siblings we do with friends. We're not outcasts, y'all.
