Thursday, June 02, 2005

"Mine!" - An Only Child's Thoughts

One of the many reasons my wife and I decided to have a second child was because we didn't want our daughter to be an only child. Witnessing our family's intense focus on our daughter the first months after she was born convinced us to have another child in order to teach our daughter that she was not the center of the universe.

My son has taught my daughter that she needs to share her toys, she needs to watch out and care for someone else, and that she cannot continually command her parents entire attention. My son helps bring out the best in her, and my daughter helps to bring out the best in him.

Speaking as an only child, I think one of the best things that you can do to raise a child is to make sure that your child is not an "only child".

5 Comments:

At June 2, 2005 at 9:05:00 AM EDT, Blogger torontopearl said...

Unless a person can only have one child for medical or other reasons, I'm in total agreement with you. The truth is that I've always felt somewhat sorry for an "only child" and I know some families in which the pattern has been repeated.
I am gratefully one of three children and I gratefully gave birth to three children.
And maybe the name of this post s/b "MINE -- ALL MINE!" or "MINE -- ONLY MINE!"

 
At June 2, 2005 at 5:24:00 PM EDT, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I was once told that why did Yitchok had two sons Yacov and Eisov, Because its better to have a second son even as Eisov than to have only one Son.

 
At June 3, 2005 at 11:27:00 AM EDT, Blogger Jack Steiner said...

That is very smart.

 
At June 3, 2005 at 5:13:00 PM EDT, Blogger Alice said...

I agree that raising an only child to be unselfish has its serious challenges, even when the parents try really hard. It's hard to teach the child to share the parents' attention with others- simple stuff like that.

 
At June 8, 2005 at 11:15:00 PM EDT, Blogger Margaritagirrl said...

Am I the only one who thinks that there should not be a "choice" of whether to have only one child??
What sort of birth control did your rabbi "pasken" that is kosher, what birth control did he issue to you??
The only time it's permitted to use birth control, is for medical reasons, emotional instability, etc.
I'm interested to hear your thoughts. I like your blog, and from the way you write, and the things you bring out, I was sure that I was reading the wrong post. I assumed that "A SIMPLE JEW would not even think about "shall we have another child"

 

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