As a child, Jason Crisp remembers visiting his friends' homes and experiencing a different type of household - living with siblings.
Crisp, now 26, was an only child but doesn't think he missed out.
"I feel like I have a more rounded picture of it all because I grew up as an only child," says Crisp, who lives in Brandon.Life as an only child meant that Crisp had his parents' undivided attention and support, both emotionally and financially, he says.
Crisp has one child, Jackson, and wouldn't mind if Jackson, who turns 3 this month, also grows up without any siblings.
Those without siblings hear these stereotypes all the time: That they are spoiled, bratty and can't function because their parents did everything for them. Wonder what onlies Steve Jobs, Betty White and Shaquille O'Neal would say about that?
Today, 20 percent of children younger than 18 are onlies, according to the U.S. Census. And, because of varied reasons including delays in marriage and having children, families with one child now outnumber those with two children, says social psychologist Susan Newman.
So if this is the new traditional family (not just in America but also in Japan, Italy, China and Britain, according to Newman), we should take a closer look and see what makes only children tick.
For starters, the notion that onlies are maladjusted is a myth, says Newman, a New Jersey parenting expert and author of "Parenting an Only Child." Newman, who covers onlies on Singletons, her Psychology Today blog, says the bias dates back to the late-1890s child psychologist G. Stanley Hall, who called being an only child "a disease unto itself." But that was a different era. Families were isolated, and a lot has changed.
Today, children are socialized very early," Newman says. "They learn all they need to know about empathy and sharing from friends. But, no matter how much parenting changes, social attitudes toward only children are stuck in the past. It's a long, slow climb to change those views."Chuck Edwards, 58, of Sioux Falls grew up as an only child on a farm in Letcher, northwest of Mitchell. "I always say you can't miss what you don't have," he says about growing up. "... You always had friends - you had more at school. I don't think I gave being an only child a second thought."
Instructions:
Some people crtique that an only child in the family does not learn family values and other moral values. The only child is being critcised for being a spoil brat. What do you think are the disadvantages and advantages of living as an only child in the family?
