Only You
Lonely, Selfish, Maladjusted is an oft-repeated mantra when it comes to only children. Well, as an only child who does not feel as though she fits into those parameters—at least most of the time—I beg to differ! So does Lauren Sandler, a fellow sibling-less peer and author of One and Only: The Freedom of Having an Only Child and the Joy of Being One (Simon & Schuster).
“One of the things that I wanted to show in my book is that there are lots of studies on only children, but what do they add up to when it comes to real experiences? There is a lot of conflicting information. I interviewed a zillion people, and it does complicate the extremes of the narrative a little bit; everyone is different and shaped by different things, but I just wanted to correct some of the misinformation without necessarily creating a new box to put only children in.”
Well said, and we got Sandler to wax positive about five benefits of being—and five benefits of having—one singular sensation.