Only Children: Don't be too quick to judge them!

There are many reason that a couple (in our case) might have one child. I won't go into the reasons because I believe you all know them. What I would like to tell you is that not ALL only children are spoiled children. For one thing, not all of us could or can spoil them economically. And I have seen plenty of non-onlies that are spoiled rotten.

One of the things that really got my goat when our son was younger (he is an only child) was the presumption that because he was the only kid that he was automatically spoiled and that I was making him a momma's boy. There is a fine line between teaching a young boy/man how to treat women, and that momma's boy result.

One of the biggest 'traps' that I fell into for a while was being a friend to our son. You cannot be a friend and a parent. At least I couldn't. He lost respect for me unless I was in parent mode.

Bringing up an only child seemed like negotiating a mine field at times, but now he and his wife are raising good kids and being better parents than we probably were.