August 2011

Half-siblings

This is the continuing dialogue with Martie in a ‘Dialogue with a parent of an only-child’. I was raised as the youngest of four, and as an only child of my parents; my siblings are my half-siblings. I have spent a good deal of my life wondering what it would have been like to have a “true” sibling, feeling like I missed out on something. Hence, I have deep concern for raising our daughter as an only child. As time has passed, I have come to realize that in all honesty, I do have three siblings, two brothers and one sister. And like many people with siblings, my husband included, I am not close to them, and they are not close to each other. We all have very different personalities, different interests, and we live states apart from one another. Most of my friends are not close to their siblings [...]

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Dialogue with a parent of an only child

I am a mother raising an only child who is about to turn three. While looking up some info on the subject I came across your website. With all due respect to you, what I read was incredibly upsetting!!! Where was the positive side of the subject? Just because you have siblings DOES NOT mean life is a party! I am the youngest of four, and my husband is the youngest of three, and we are on our own. Yes, we know we have someone in the world if there was an emergency but other than that, there is warm and fussy feeling. I think for many people in today’s world, their friends become their family. Martie Bernice Responds I am sorry you found the website so upsetting, I assume from your position as a parent of an only child. However the website is intended for adult only children, to [...]

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