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July 12, 2010
Time magazine published an article this week, titled “The Only Child: Debunking the Myth.” It was written by the mother of an only child, who argues that the stereotypes of the “lonely only” and the “spoiled, selfish, solitary misfit” is old and outdated, yet perpetuated partly by repetition in the media.
As an only child myself, the article does ring a bit true. Only children do get a bad rap – that’s the nature of a negative stereotype. So it’s good to see an article on this topic making the cover of Time.
I feel like a fairly well adjusted only child, and I know quite a few others as well (who are anything but misfits). But that’s not to say I haven’t struggled to control some only child characteristics – like selfishness. The bottom line, though, is that only children can do quite well in this world, and it’s fair to let that be known.
Also see: Pictures of Famous Only Children
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July 7, 2010
Thanks to all of you who have registered, participated, and shared your stories here on AdultOnlyChild.org. This site is still very new, and therefore leaves a lot of room for improvement. So please, share your feedback, and let us know how we can improve the user experience here. Are certain areas of the site confusing to use? What would you like to see more of? Thanks for any and all feedback – good, bad, or indifferent! Actually, scrap the indifferent stuff – we need opinions 
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June 9, 2010
Sorry to anyone who was having trouble registering as a new user last week. This site was attacked by spammers and over 300 fake accounts were registered in a matter of hours, so I had to disable the whole site for a short while. After I brought the site back up I neglected to re-enable the ‘registration’ feature. It’s back up and running now, though, and I would like to thank the patient member who notified me of this mixup, and came back later to register.
Want to become an AdultOnlyChild.org member? Register here: http://adultonlychild.org/register
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May 13, 2010
This new website, which just a few months ago had just one member (me), now has 15 registered members and several hundred visitors…more each week. I’m glad to see some of you are participating in conversations with one another, commenting on posts and in forums, and sharing your stories in blog posts (like GroverCleveland did). With your contributions this website could grow to become a valuable community for still more adult only children like ourselves.
If you’re not sure how to get started using the site, read how to participate. If you’d rather just watch/read, that’s fine, too. Thanks for stopping by. Also, here’s a reminder of why I started this site.
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May 27, 2009
You’re an adult only child. Right?
Just a guess. If so, then I’m glad you found this site. I started this as a place where you can share the challenges, privileges, and common experiences that only adults without siblings have.
About AdultOnlyChild.com:
If the phrase “adult only child” sounds contradictory to you…if you’re not sure what it means, then you’re probably not one. But here’s another way of putting it: “adults who don’t have any siblings.” This site is all about them.
I put the site up some time in early 2009, and just put a version of this post on the home page. Over the course of about 6 months, more than 1,500 people visited the site. If that many people stop by when there’s nothing on the site, maybe we can get some of you to join a community.
Until some of you join this new community, it just serves as a collection of any material I can find online regarding adult only children.
How to Participate:
- Login (or Register first, if you haven’t already)
- Ask questions in the group forums,
- Create your own groups and forums, or even
- Start your own AdultOnlyChild blog.
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April 12, 2009
Growing up an only child can be a blessing, or a challenge – usually both. The same can be said, I’m finding, of being an adult only child.
I was talking with a colleague just the other day who said he’s been unable to focus on work because his mother had to go into the hospital recently. He’s an only child, so he’s been dedicating a lot of time to helping her deal with the paperwork, insurance, finances and general bureaucracy of the California (MediCal) and federal (Medicare) health care systems. If only there was an online group he and others could tap into to share knowledge about this stuff.
I empathized with him, and in the back of my mind I was thinking, this is exactly the reason I bought the adultonlychild.org domain – I just didn’t know it at the time. I may very well go through this same type of challenge, eventually – and I’m sure other people (only children or otherwise) who have navigated these types of issues before could share a lot with people in this position…like how to help our parents through retirement and health issues that occur later in life. Lots of adults go through the same types of things as their parents get older, but only a fraction of them are only children, or don’t have other siblings to help share the responsibility. And I think that creates a distinct set of circumstances that make dealing with these situations uniquely challenging for adult only children.
This is not to say that being an only child is all strife – it’s certainly not. But I’d be happy if this website could serve as a source of help for issues specific to adult only children.
Update (1/20/10): AdultOnlyChild.org has officially been converted from a plain old website into a “social network.” Well, it will be a network as soon as the 2nd member joins, I guess. Go ahead…join!
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