As one of the only only children amongst my friends, I’ve spent many years listening to the woes and joys of having siblings without having any of my own to complain about. And in all honesty, having siblings sounds like a much better time than having none at all, even if they did drive me insane (especially when school happens to shut down for 3 weeks, leaving me at home with absolutely nothing to do).
I guess my opinion is slightly biased (“grass is always greener on the other side” and all), but here are some pretty important downsides to being an only child that will hopefully make you more grateful for your siblings!
- Boredom
With no other kid in the house to play with, there really wasn’t much to do as a child, especially when it took approximately 3 days (and many hours of good piano practice) to even come close to convincing my parents to play boardgames with me. Also, (this might be something specific to my parents), because I was the only kid, my family didn’t do a lot of child-oriented activities in general, like going to Ribfest or taking a trip to Disney World (which made summers brutally dull). Instead, I usually got dragged into my parents’ activities, like gardening and going to lunch with coworkers.
So a lot of the time, I would be left to my own devices when it came to be finding ways to pass time. Which, I suppose, could also be considered somewhat of a positive thing, since it led me to my love of reading and other creative outlets, but has also possibly made me somewhat strange/unique (according to certain friends).
- Attention
I think this is usually considered a benefit of being an only child–not having to fight with your siblings for your parents’ attention. But to have your parents pay attention only to you can get pretty exhausting in many aspects.
When I was little, one wrong note on the piano would have both my parents (especially my mom) on me in 2 seconds.
Even now, a couple coughs or a sneeze would have my parents bothering me to eat fruit and vitamin C for days. There is nothing I do that bypasses my parents’ observation, which also means that my parents’ moods are always heavily dependent on my successes and failures. Going into college especially, there’s a high level of pressure to succeed at a career that will make my parents happy since all their investments for the past 17 years have been put solely toward me and my education.
- Lack of advice
I guess this might only be helped by an older sibling, but over the years, whenever I’ve run into more personal issues or needed advice for school that my friends couldn’t give me, there wasn’t really anyone for me to talk to. I’ve managed to make do with the internet though!
- Being the “experiment child”
This one is probably an issue an oldest child would also have, but being the first (and only) child my parents raised, I feel like my parents didn’t really know….a whole lot about younger children.
For example, my parents thought I was very strange for wanting to hang out with my friends as a young elementary schooler/junior high schooler, and didn’t realize this was actually pretty normal for a kid. They also didn’t really know how to deal with me when I was being emotional.
I also don’t think my parents really knew or expected the steep increase of stress going from junior high to high school, and I didn’t have a ton of help going through critical periods like testing junior year and college apps senior year.
- Conflicts
Being the only child, arguments in the house would be pretty awkward regardless of who was arguing with whom. If it was 2v1 (my parents against me), it’d be a very frustrating and lonely couple of days until everything was resolved. Having the only two people you live with upset at you is not a fun time! But I guess having a sibling wouldn’t help this if they also sided against you most of the time.
My parents arguing with each other wasn’t much better. It would also be pretty lonely, especially when I was younger and didn’t know what was going on (and having someone else to worry with during these times would have been useful).
Family issues in general are a little more stressful when you don’t have anyone else going through them with you.
So yeah! Being an only child is really not the best time (although things have gotten a slightly more exciting since we got a puppy two years ago)! 
But even so, I guess never having to share my snacks with a sibling makes up for all the struggles (kind of).
This really hit home. Due to the CoronaVirus, I am at home with my mom 24/7. I love her so much, but she constantly dotes over me and gives me numerous multi-vitamins to combat the virus (She’s a nurse lol). Sometimes I wish I had a sibling too, despite how annoying they are to some, it would be nice to have a little company every now and then. Overall, this was such a relatable and enjoyable post!
Omggg Allison I relate to all of this SO MUCH. I’m also an only child and my parents also got me a dog to try to make up for my loneliness lol. I definitely understand the boredom, too much attention, having no sibling to lean on, and the pressure to succeed in all future endeavors as your parents’ only hope. When I was little, I’d constantly wish I had a sibling to play with because my parents were always busy or too tired to keep up with me. I even remember playing Connect 4 against myself by making my own move, then going to the other side of the game to make my “opponent”‘s move, haha. Thank you for writing this blog post, it’s comforting to me that there are others like me out there who are going through the same things!
Aloha Allison! I’m so glad you wrote this blog because growing up people around me thought it was great to be an only child when obviously there were many drawbacks. I could actually relate to everything you talked about especially your conflicts section; there’s no one to talk to when family interactions turn sour. The number 3 also leads to awkward power imbalances because almost every conversation becomes a 2 v 1. For boredom, I’d say it’s a double edged sword because not being occupied by a sibling meant I had all the time in the world to explore what I wanted to(and to be bored: I think that was the most common thing I felt as a kid). Let’s talk more about only child things? I bet we have a lot more to relate to.