Only Children

only child?

  • Only Child is ME

    Votes: 10 20.0%
  • 1 sibling

    Votes: 22 44.0%
  • 2 siblings

    Votes: 14 28.0%
  • 2 siblings and i'm the middle 1 like hitler and napoleon

    Votes: 2 4.0%
  • 3 or more brothers and sisters

    Votes: 2 4.0%
  • my mum says she found me under a mulberry bush

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    50

sufi

lala
Are you an only child or do you have siblings???

me i'm the eldest of 3, a little bro (aka newliberia) & a little sis
(& do your siblings use dissensus?)
 

martin

----
Are you an only child or do you have siblings???
(& do your siblings use dissensus?)

Two sisters, one brother, all born over a decade before me. You'll have to blame the Pope for that one. So I kind of got best of both shitty worlds.

Do they use Dissensus? Are you joking?
 

STN

sou'wester
I was going to post a similar thing, because I realized recently that a significant majority of my friends and ex-partners are the youngest of the litter. I do think it has a massive effect on your personality.

I have one older sister. She doesn't use dissensus. I think we should try and guess who is what: youngest, oldest, middle, only.
 

nomadthethird

more issues than Time mag
In most developed countries, it's rare to see more than 2-3 children in one family, although it does happen. So guessing that there are a lot of one sibling families out there isn't magic, just pretty obvious.

But birth order/personality is a fun subject. I have a younger brother. My parents don't like to admit this, but they treated him completely differently than they did me and he lived by another set of (much more lenient) rules.

Most of people I've known who were only children seemed to think they missed out on something very special and important by not having siblings. Whereas when I was a kid I would've said only children were lucky because they didn't have to deal with double-standards and favoritism.
 

martin

----
Personality-wise, in descending birth order, my 'other 3' are

1 - Gregarious, over-emotional, reckless
2 - Cynical, quiet, headstrong, guarded
3 - In your face, motormouth, scam artist

It might be worth pointing out that 2 was the 'golden girl' for years.
 

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
Most of people I've known who were only children seemed to think they missed out on something very special and important by not having siblings. Whereas when I was a kid I would've said only children were lucky because they didn't have to deal with double-standards and favoritism.

That's what a friend was telling me the other day - his siblings are particularly stressful though. I take your point objectively-speaking, but I can't help but feel a bit jealous with friends who have siblings they get on amazingly with.

On a darker note, the prospect of being alone to look after both my parents as they (hopefully not, but, realisitcally, probably) increased ill health of old age, is one of the only things that wakes me up in the night, shivering.
 

Pestario

tell your friends
youngest of 3

older half sister -> older brother -> me

my sister is much older than my brother and I (8 years older than my brother, who is 4 years older than me) and she was always living away so she felt like more of older cousin than a sister. The gap also meant that my brother seemed to get the worst aspects of being 'the oldest' as well as the middle child.
 

swears

preppy-kei
I have a sister who is 18 months younger, people always thought we were twins. She is a lot more outgoing and well-adjusted than me, we always got along OK, but not particularly close. Also a brother who's 8 years younger, he's very headstrong and athletic (6 foot 2 at 17) I used to feel protective of him, but he can look after himself OK now, haha. Do they read Dissensus? No, my sister told my mum I was going to see "this music professor fella talk about happy hardcore at FACT."

I sort of feel like the runt of the litter, like when the scientist in Twins tells Danny DeVito "You were the shit that was left over". I think our parents love us all the same though, never really been any favouritism.
 

STN

sou'wester
Ask your sister about that... I wonder what she thinks.

what do you think she's likely to think, if you were to hazard a guess?

I wonder what my sister thinks, I reckon she thinks they favour me.*

*which they'd be right to, harr harr.
 

swears

preppy-kei
Ask your sister about that... I wonder what she thinks.

Hmmm... I dunno. They always made sure we had the same stuff. I remember if there was a cake, my mum would have one of us cut it down the middle and take the smallest slice. Of course it would be the most accurate 50/50 cut you'd ever seen, lol. We were just very different kids, I'd be in my room reading and she'd be on the front lawn with at least 10 mates shouting their heads off.
 

Sick Boy

All about pride and egos
Nomad it looks like your theory isn't really panning out.
12 of the 14 people who've taken this poll so far have siblings.
 

jenks

thread death
Hmmm... I dunno. They always made sure we had the same stuff. I remember if there was a cake, my mum would have one of us cut it down the middle and take the smallest slice. Of course it would be the most accurate 50/50 cut you'd ever seen, lol. We were just very different kids, I'd be in my room reading and she'd be on the front lawn with at least 10 mates shouting their heads off.

we use the 'you cut - he chooses' method - very effective.

I am the older of two - my sister is 18 mths younger and pretty much hoovered up all of the family's attention - very much the one who got into trouble with the police etc while I just got on with things.

I think this pattern has been reflected throughout our whole lives - she still lives close to my dad and is always getting him to help her out while I live a way from where I grew up and would never dream of asking for help.

With my own two I am very aware of how position in the family ahs had a big effect on them - the older is very competent and independent whilst teh younger still relies on playing up as the 'baby' of the family despite now being 9.He also plays on the fact that his older brother will do everything for him if allowed.
 

woops

is not like other people
Nomad it looks like your theory isn't really panning out.
12 of the 14 people who've taken this poll so far have siblings.

remarkably no hitlers or napoleons yet though.

I have one brother who is a year and a half younger.
 

STN

sou'wester
With my own two I am very aware of how position in the family ahs had a big effect on them - the older is very competent and independent whilst teh younger still relies on playing up as the 'baby' of the family despite now being 9.He also plays on the fact that his older brother will do everything for him if allowed.

I think I might still do this a bit.

Certainly my sister will try and do everything for me, which drives me insane. We'll be in a bookshop, and she'll say 'oh what are you looking for?' and I'll tell her and she'll race off and try to find it. Maddening.

I recently went on holiday with three other people, one a youngest sibling (like me), the other two were oldest siblings, and I noticed that me and other-youngest sat around a lot more, while the two oldests did stuff, like tidying, cooking etc.
 

STN

sou'wester
Nomad it looks like your theory isn't really panning out.
12 of the 14 people who've taken this poll so far have siblings.

I'd say that's a fairly significant number (of a very small sample), considering how rarely one meets only children.
 
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