The Only Child Option

We are in a recession. The President says we are coming out of it slowly. I, for one, don’t buy it. I think it is going to get a lot worse before it gets better. We made our decision to have just 1 child long before the Fed’s economic policy caught up with itself, but the numbers don’t lie. I ran several calculators online to estimate how much it costs to raise a child. Conservative estimates are $220,000 through age 18. Ouch. It is important to note, this number does not include private education or college.

Single-child families do increase during times of economic difficulty. There was a 23% rise in only-child families during the Great Depression. This recession is going to shape whether or not women decide to have children as well. Maybe for you the jury is still out. 44% of women polled recently say they plan to reduce or delay their childbearing because of the economy. You would not be alone.

But, you might ask, isn’t that selfish? Deciding whether or not to have children based on how much they cost – how unfeeling and wrong. I don’t think so. In order to take care of your child(ren) you must first take care of yourself. Everyone was quick to criticize Octomom, Nadya Suleman, because she gave birth to 14 children despite her inability to provide for their basic needs. Why shouldn’t everyone take financial resources into consideration when deciding how many children to have?

Here is another fantastic video by Dr. Sylvia Gearing.  She really has a firm grasp on only child parenting and can give you a balanced view of things to watch out for and things to do that will help you as you parent an only child:

In an effort to provide you with the most comprehensive information about only-child parenting, consider this excellent video with Dr. Sylvia Gearing:

Many of us have heard, “but they won’t have siblings.”  My answer is, “so.”

I have gone through the myths and sufficiently address why they are incorrect or invalid.  Giving a sibling to your child is NOT a good reason to have another child – I don’t care who you are!  The main “concern” is that only children lack social skills.  This is simply not the case based on research released by Ohio State University on August 16, 2010.  There are 3 articles I found that discuss the issue at length. I linked to all of them because the viewpoints are slightly different as are the comments at the end.

Growing Up Without Sibs Doesn’t Hurt Social Skills

What Difference do Siblings Make?

An Only Child is Not a More Lonely Teenager

Happy reading!

I am going to start posting links to news stories that I find related to our blog topic. I am not taking responsibility for the work, but trying to provide the most comprehensive only-child resource on the web.  There are precious few sites dedicated to the only child experience (for the child OR the parent) and the more information you have, the better decision you can make for your family.

I came across this article today and found it interesting. A trend is being seen “across the pond” in the United Kingdom with one-child families becoming the norm:

The one and only: Why more parents are choosing a single-child family

Enjoy!