I found your website purely by chance. I’m having a difficult time in my career right now and did a Google search on “suitable careers for an only child.” I didn’t find a suitable career, but read with great relish some of the narratives on your website. My life has been rich and interesting. I was born to a female only child, who married my father, the eldest son with a younger sister. I was their product, and the product of my dad’s second marriage. He had a daughter from his first marriage, another only child (who went on to marry an only child!), who I no longer see since my father’s death. I have fond memories of my childhood. We were very hard up when I was growing up, so while I had lots of love and affection I had very little materialistically. I had an imagination and my [...]
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I recently found your website and read with interest many of the comments that echo my own experiences as an only child. That was most helpful. Many of the stories were wonderfully optimistic and portrayed loving parents who nurtured and supported their only children. I loved these stories. My particular situation, however, was rampant with dysfunction that I truly think compounded the only child circumstance. Both my parents were alcoholics. We were not poor, did not live on the wrong side of town, my parents were not criminals and I did not go without the essentials of food, clothing and shelter during my childhood. As I have come to know after years of trying to understand alcoholism, an alcoholic puts the “condition” ahead of all else in their lives. That is to say, meeting the need of the alcoholism comes before the children, the home, the extended family, everything. Therefore, [...]
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