The daughter is an only child. The daughter has a couple of dozen brothers and sisters. She has a number of stuffed animals and dolls who are in an ever-changing, and to me, an incomprehensible hierarchy of relationships vis a vis her. Some are now dolls of her siblings, for instance; please don’t ask me which are which.
I DO know, however, that her number one sibling is her sister Unicorn. She has three or four other unicorns that have names that aren’t Unicorn; I forget what they are. It was she – Lydia, not Unicorn, at least I think so – who decided that they should wear matching outfits when they played in their band. The keyboards, which I have had for decades, can be programmed to play some tunes, and it has an annoying automatic tune as well.
Sometimes, I feel marginally guilty, for her sake, having just one (human) child, but she seems to have adapted. She has friends at church and school, she LOVES her cousins who live an hour away (and the ones that live further, as well.) In any case, it is what it is, and we’re not going to be changing it.
Here’s an interesting article: A Dose of Sibling Rivalry: For Only Child Families, New Thinking Pushes Kid-Time, Sharing and Squabbling AUGUST 10, 2010 Wall Street Journal.
“Looking at 50-year-old women, who are presumably finished having children, 18.3% of them had a single child in 2006, up from 11.4% in 1990, according to numbers from the National Center for Health Statistics. The growth is being spurred by more later-in-life marriage and child-bearing. Financial concerns are also at play. As the cost of diapers, child-care, and college degrees keep their steady march northward, some parents are deciding it’s just too expensive to have that second kid.”
Roger – I was an only child and can honestly say I feel it was the making of me – later in life she will have the stability and independence others crave for. Many of my contempories can not stand being in the house alone – yet I love it. Please tell Lydia she can adopt me as an auntie cos I think she is a star. My nephews rate me as their favourite auntie so she will be in good company!
Lydia seems so creative too – what a little star!
That’s really interesting. Norah doesn’t do that at all. When she plays with her dolls, they usually end up being kids she knows in school. I wonder if it’s because she has a sister, even though she rarely plays with her (Mia’s choice, of course – she’ll play with Norah a bit, and then start the pinching). That’s fascinating that Lydia has given herself siblings. Kids are neat.