August 2013

Is it better for children to have siblings? (BBC 4 Today programme Aug 22nd)

Yesterday, I was asked my opinion, by a number of radio programmes. This was because of  Sky news presenter and father of six, Colin Brazier’s new book: “Sticking up for Siblings’; published yesterday by Civitas (Institute for Civil Society). In fact I did a very brief interview for Radio 4 Today programme. (Unfortunately not one of my better interviews due to a 30 second delay feedback of my own voice made it impossible to think very clearly!) The BBC news article: Is it better for children to have siblings? has a brief over-view of the book. I was pleasantly surprised that the importance of sibling relationships was being advocated in Colin Brazier’s book. Similarly the economic argument  COTS (cost of a sibling) that the long term cost of a child is £250,000 is challenged by Child Poverty Action Group and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, bringing it down to a mere £150,000. [...]

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Email from a journalist from Brazil

Elida Oliveira I’m a journalist in Brazil, and I’m writing an article about the Only Child. There is a lot of reseach that tries to discover if it is good or not. Many say that onlies achieve better are more intelligence, loved, and so on. Others demonstrate that only child are lonely, selfish and maladjusted. Your goal is just talk with them to know if the onlies, that are adults, feel good about it. Amazing! That’s why I’m writing you. I would like to know if in your research you found any bad aspect of being an only child, or any good aspect of being onlies. What do you conclude? I think that those who didn’t have siblings want to have them because they don’t know if it would be better or not. (I used to dream with an older sister, as I have an older brother) What about the [...]

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