One and done

I never gave much thought to the size of other people's families until I had my son. When I was a child, I had friends that had one or two siblings, and a couple of families that had five children or more. I even knew a few single kids. And they all seemed perfectly happy and normal to me.

So, it shocked me (the way it must shock other parents of singles) the first time someone questioned my choice to have only one child. (Like it was their business.) At first, I would respond with statements like, "he is perfect and all we need," but over time I learned to ignore those people (because - again - not any of their business.)

I guess I never heard about the idea of "lonely only" or that single children were weird. Eventually I read that this stereotype came from a study by someone in the 1800s. Seems like we should have more up-to-date data by now.

And we do.

Families with single children are the fastest growing unit in the U.S. And it is for a variety of reasons. But, I would never say that a one child only policy would be right for everyone.

Having children - and how many - is such a personal choice. That's it. That's all that there really is to it.

My family is a happy one. We play games, we ride roller coasters, we go on adventures. It doesn't bother me that we don't have an even number in our family unit. Three is our magic number, but it doesn't have to be someone else's.