March 2013

Do only child adults fit the stereotype of ‘selfish’?

I have written about the so called only child  trait of ‘selfish’ before, linked to the difficulties only child adults find in sharing, and the age old problem of the only child stereotype which depicts only children as spoilt and therefore selfish.  I thought now is a good time  to look at this particular stereotype more closely. Firstly, I believe, the reason why only children are often accused of being selfish is because they do not learn ‘how’ to share from an early age. Parents will share with them but this is often a one way process: the parents give – the child takes.  In the post What should I do, I comment on the need for parents to learn to share decision making, in order to model this way of behaving to their child. Having siblings, enables children to learn the importance of not always going first. Only children do not have this experience of being last or having another child go first. Some parents actively give too much to their [...]

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