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Ever wonder what it is like to be a single child? Well, being an only child, I have taken it on myself to tell you how exactly it feels to be a single child. Being a single child has its share of both pros and cons. And if you are a single child, you know how we thank the Lord at one moment for not having any siblings and curse him at the other for the very same reason!
So here are the pros and cons of being a single child.
1.We get all the good stuff!
Since our parents don’t have to spend a lot of their income to buy two, three, or seven things for all their children, we usually get the best of best things. We are usually those annoying kids at school who have the ’75 Colours’ coloring set instead of 42, like everybody else! Sorry!
2. No Sharing!
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Do you remember when you didn’t want to share something, but your mother very sternly said that you have to share it with your siblings? Well, I don’t! We single children never had to share anything with anybody at home. We had all the best things, and we had it all to ourselves! Unless, of course, that annoying cousin visits. Then it’s just war and a lot of screaming!
3.Centre of attention.
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There is nobody to steal the attention away from us. And let’s admit it! Every child wants their parents’ attention. There are no annoying brothers to keep our mothers from taking us shopping or no annoying sister who takes up all of our fathers’ time! They are always looking out for us and only us! How amazing is that?
4.Having a room all to ourselves!
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One room, usually the best one in the house, is all ours! We don’t have to deal with our brother’s half-eaten pizza lying on the floor or our sister’s jewelry scattered all over the place. Nope. Our room is basically our kingdom! We rule over it! It is made as per our choices, keeping in mind our favorite colors. We can rearrange the furniture according to our convenience. We can put up posters of our favorite bands all over. And the best part, nobody to object!
5.Becoming Independent.
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As the only child, we are, more often than not, left alone at home. This is the only reason we can do a lot of stuff on our own. This is the only reason we are self-sufficient. This is also why we can never understand why you can’t do certain kinds of stuff on your own. You tell us that you can make some snacks on your own, and in our minds, we go like, “Whaaaat? How does he survive? Is he that useless” We aren’t judgmental; we can’t understand how you are going on with life being a complete imbecile.
Jealous much? Well, now let’s come to the cons.
6.Making mistakes.
As the only child, if we make a mistake, we can not blame it on anybody else and will probably never hear the end of it! We break a glass today, and a year from now, our mothers will still not let us near anything that can break, saying, “Remember that time when you broke my favorite glass?” God, Mom, that was one time! When will you get over it? It is probably because it’s only one child’s mistake that they have to deal with, and it is easier for them to remember each of them.
7.Loneliness.
Even with all the pros of being a single child, the loneliness gets to us very badly. We have no one to share our thoughts with, except for a diary that can’t talk, feel, or comfort us. We have no one to take advice from, and we have no one to hold us when we are feeling down. And no matter how close we are to our parents, every one of us knows that even if we are bursting to express, we won’t go to them, because we can’t scar them with reality!
8.Over-protectiveness.
We are the only child they have, so our parents get very protective of us. And when I say very overprotective, I mean VERY VERY PROTECTIVE. We are not allowed to stay out with friends for a very long time. We are not allowed to go on school trips. We are not allowed to do anything remotely dangerous as having to come back from school alone if we ever have to stay back for some extracurricular work and miss the school bus, whose conductor has been specifically told to drop us right in front of our house. Trust me, and it is suffocating! It gets very annoying, and we can’t do anything about it. Unless our parents are really cool, which seldom they are.
Srijonee Basu
Indraprastha College for Women
English Hons.
About the author
I am Srijonee Basu. I hail from Kolkata, West Bengal. I did my schooling from Mahadevi Birla World Academy (formerly known as Mahadevi Birla Girls' Higher Secondary School). Presently, I am pursuing B.A. English (Hons.), from Indraprastha College for Women, University of Delhi. I love music and movies. I am a fairly good singer. I also like to read books and I sometimes write short stories, skits and articles.
