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 [...]
