all the attention

Jenni Murray: The lifelong pain of being a ‘lonely only’

As it’s revealed one-child families will soon be the norm, JENNI MURRAY mourns the sibling she never had. By Jenni Murray His name is David Robert and he’s my baby brother. He was born only last night. This was my boast to the school dinner ladies. But the truth was that I didn’t have a baby brother — a lie that was humiliatingly revealed when my mother turned up to a school function that night and was teased for having a pregnancy that had never shown. The next day I faced the full force of her fury. I was smacked for telling such a whopper, denied a month’s pocket money and grounded for two weeks (child psychology in Barnsley was, I fear, in its infancy in the Fifties).  But the truth was, at the age of seven, I desperately wanted a brother (David Robert was the name I would have [...]

Read more…

What it feels like… to have just one child

An only child, Erica Wagner, reveals her reservations and delight at having just one son The Sunday Times, 27 June 2010 “How many children do you have?” is an everyday question I’ve come to dread. “One,” I reply, humbly. “Only one?” Eyebrows shoot skyward. Uncomfortable surprise turns to downright horror when it is established that my only child is nine, and therefore I’m unlikely to be planning another baby. “Oh, a lonely only,” one mother commented, with a devastated sigh. Having only one child works for me, but my decision is obviously hard for some to understand; I seem to defy logic. My husband and I both work from home, we have flexible careers that would accommodate a baker’s dozen, and we both adore our nine-year-old son, Conrad. Yet one is enough for us. Mothers of more sometimes appear to disapprove of my choice. Besides the “lonely only” comment, complete [...]

Read more…