Almost everyone I know has siblings, and I always feel a little left out when my friends talk about their siblings. My cousin just recently gave birth to a daughter, and that makes me her uncle by Chinese tradition, but unfortunately I cannot technically be an uncle without having any siblings. It’s a shame because I think I would’ve made a really cool uncle and spoiled my nieces and nephews. Anyways, as an only child, I’ve always wondered what it would be like to have siblings.

With this whole global pandemic that seems to be getting closer everyday, my parents are forcing me to stay at home and staying at home means no going out to hang out with friends whatsoever. I can’t have friends over either, so basically I’m stuck at home with my parents. I love my parents, and I’m so grateful for them, but it really gets annoying when they’re constantly yelling at me to focus on E-learning and get off my phone. (I am 100% focused on my E-learning, Mrs. Trowbridge, don’t worry). I just feel like if I had a older brother or sister, they could share the torment from our parents with me. As the days of my quarantine go on, I keep wishing that I had a sibling that was also stuck in quarantine with me.

As an only child, everyone assumes that your spoiled, and you get everything you want without having to share anything. There is some truth to that, I didn’t have to share candy or toys, which I would’ve hated as a child. But as I got older, I realized how nice it would’ve been to share some things for my supposed siblings to enjoy.  My ideal sibling would be an older brother or sister. As I mentioned earlier, they could’ve helped with dealing with my parents. They also could help guide me through high school, and life as a teenager. They could’ve set a great example for me to follow. They also will probably understand a lot of the jokes that I make and pop culture references that I make, as my parents are a little too old to understand them. I could also do fun activities with them instead of being bored on my own, like I am in quarantine. I always jokingly try to get Daniel and Ann to pretend that we are all siblings or related but they don’t go for it, even though I think it’s perfect because we all have the same last name so we could actually fool teachers and other students into thinking that we were triplets. A younger sibling would’ve been nice too, I think that having a younger siblings forces you to make better choices so that you can set a better example for them. I feel like it’s always the older sibling’s duty to set a good example for their younger ones.

For those out there with siblings, appreciate them, they may annoy you, as I’ve heard, or get on your nerves sometimes but at least you have someone in your family that you can sometimes relate to. More and more Americans are choosing to have only one child nowadays, and they may have good reason to. In the end, I think that it would be very beneficial for a child to have siblings that guide and support them.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/on-parenting/the-rise-of-the-only-child-how-america-is-coming-around-to-the-idea-of-just-one/2019/06/19/b4f75480-8eb9-11e9-8f69-a2795fca3343_story.html