Do you want plenty of siblings or just one?

Philippines
April 18, 2013 12:25am CST
I have only one sibling, my brother. If I could have dictated my parents then, I could have demanded them more siblings. LOL! Kidding aside, I love my brother but I envy those who have plenty of siblings. When I see a whole big family bonding in a mall or having picnic together, I always notice their happy and loud voices having fun, teasing each other. But if having only one sibling is lonely what more those who are only child. My son is an only child. We have plans of adding one more to our clan, but God does not provide us yet. My husband has three sisters, and they end up always ganging up on him even if he is the eldest, just because he is an only boy.LOL! My parents have reasons why we are only two in the family. I understand its more of a financial reason that anything else. They said that they might not afford sending us both to school, but hey they managed still. If given a chance, I want more siblings. How about you?
29 responses
@patgalca (18164)
• Orangeville, Ontario
19 Apr 13
Many siblings does not guarantee a close happy family. There are five children in my family. I am the youngest. We are so spread apart in years that I have felt like an only child most of my life. We are adults now and I still don't feel like I have a relationship with my sisters like they have with each other. My brother is 4.5 years older than me, my sister is 9.5 years older, next sister 14 years older, and my oldest brother was 15 years older than me. This was due to no fault of my parents. My mother had a miscarriage in between each of the last three pregnancies. As a teenager family gatherings consisted of my siblings arriving with their children and me sitting quietly among them. I don't think I will ever be close to my siblings. My husband came from a family of 8 kids who were born very close together. In one case his mother had two children in a little over a year. I think one was born in December and the other January a year later. He is very close to his family and insists on going "home" to see them every year even though we can't afford it. I must say that I have two daughters who are three years apart. They used to fight like crazy and one day I threw up my arms and said, "You are making tomorrow's memories today. Do you want to grow up and have bad memories about each other?" They were just kids at the time but that statement had an impact on them. They are very close friends puzzling everyone when they wanted to play on the same soccer team together, go to movies and shopping together. They giggle like crazy when they are together and it warms my heart. I didn't have that growing up but I am so glad my girls do. I wanted more kids to have that big family that I feel I missed out on, but after two I developed fibromyalgia and my husband said that was enough. I couldn't handle anymore. I had hoped for one more but it wasn't meant to be. God has mapped out our life plan already. We have to be thankful for what he has blessed us with. He knows what is right for us. I hope His plan is to give you another child. Good luck.
@patgalca (18164)
• Orangeville, Ontario
19 Apr 13
I think I got that from Oprah.
• Philippines
19 Apr 13
Thank you. I love what you said " you are making tomorrow's memories today". All siblings should remember that always.
@mythociate (21438)
• Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
19 Apr 13
Well--all things (money) being equal ("... if land & seas were candy & cheese ...")--yes, I would want more siblings; not because 'life would be better for me then,' but because 'it would introduce to me a big truth of the world: that I don't matter unless enough people are "with me"'. But it might be hard on parents, having to love ALL their children equally; and hard on me & the rest of the kids, competing for the next 'sharing of the parents' favoritism' (which is bound to creep in even though they'd say they love all the children equally ) But that 'struggle' depends on how fast the children & parents learn their lessons: the children, that 'how much their parents like them' depends in large part on 'how much they-themselves like doing things for the parents'; & the parents, that the love they give for 'a job well-done' is the same as (or maybe a little greater than) the love that inspires the children to do well in the first place
• Philippines
19 Apr 13
You know now that I am already a parent, even with only one child, I now understand what parents with, "I love you all equally". I used not understand that before coz I thought my mother's favorite is my brother. Now I understand that she focuses on him because he is a bit disorganized and without sense of direction.
@dpk262006 (58673)
• Delhi, India
19 Apr 13
I have only one younger brother and it is fine with me. I think less siblings are OK because one can pay attention to less siblings rather than more. If you have 3-4 siblings are you interact more with elder one or the youngest one, others start feeling bad. I mean to say it gets difficult to maintain a kind of balance in dealing with all the siblings, specially when they start they get married and their own families.
@dpk262006 (58673)
• Delhi, India
19 Apr 13
read - when they get married and start their own families.
@kokomo (1867)
• Philippines
27 Apr 13
Yes I agree with you. It is better to have more than one siblings. Like me, I am the eldest daughter of my parents among their four off springs and I have three younger boy siblings. In deed, when we are together, it seems that there is a gang war in our house. lol. We are very happy when we are complete and I guess my problem will vanish if I am with them.
• Philippines
18 Apr 13
I love children but if ill be ask if how many siblings i want to have i like 3 siblings like what we had in our family...
@bux123 (96)
• India
18 Apr 13
I also like children very much I am not married, therre are children at my neighborhood.I go to there and play with them.playing with kids it is very much time pass and and we get along very fun.playing with kids is a kind of exercise to us.if we have faith in our house we get more work we need to take care of them we will become busy.
• China
18 Apr 13
you may know one family just can have a child in china,to have the second is prohibited.
• Philippines
18 Apr 13
Thats sad.
@dpk262006 (58673)
• Delhi, India
19 Apr 13
I have only one younger brother and it is fine with me. I think less siblings are OK because one can pay attention to less siblings rather than a larger clan. If you have 3-4 siblings and if you happen to interact more with eldest one or the youngest one, others start feeling bad. I mean to say it gets difficult to maintain a kind of balance in dealing with all the siblings, specially when they start they get married and their own families.
@dpk262006 (58673)
• Delhi, India
19 Apr 13
I have only one younger brother and it is fine with me. I think less siblings are OK because one can pay attention to less siblings rather than a larger clan. If you have 3-4 siblings are you interact more with elder one or the youngest one, others start feeling bad. I mean to say it gets difficult to maintain a kind of balance in dealing with all the siblings, specially when they start they get married and their own families.
@nanayangel (7879)
• Philippines
19 Apr 13
Hi there Aileen2008! I have three sisters and two half brothers. I am pretty satisfied with that. Like you, though, I would prefer having more but I am okay with what I have now. My husband and I also have a son and are also trying to have another child. We are not blessed with a new child yet but I know that that time will come. One of our reasons before is financial matter as well but I know we will are now working on that as well. If we will be blessed with the capacity to bring up more children, I would like to have at least four kids.
@jazel_juan (15747)
• Philippines
19 Apr 13
i have to agree with you, i have only one older brother with 8 years gap, so it was different and hard too and i was the only girl so parents were a lot more strict for me. Growing up was hard, expectations were toooo high and it was not nice at all. I often wished before i have more younger or older brothers and sisters. That is why i am also glad i have three kids, they won't be lonely and they get to have playmates too.
@Porcospino (31367)
• Denmark
19 Apr 13
When I was a child I was friends from the girl from the neighbour house and she had 3 sisters and a brother. At that time I was an only child, and I was very jealous at my friend. I wished that I was a part of a large family as well. My friend was jealous at me because I didn't have to share my toys with anyone She had many arguments with her sisters and her brother and she often came over to my house because she wanted to get away from her siblings for a while, and my house was very quiet compared to her house. A few years later my brother was born, and I was very happy. My brother and I have always had a close relationship and we have spent a lot of time together. I love my brother, but I still think that it would have been great to have plenty of siblings instead of one brother.
@jenny1015 (13366)
• Philippines
22 Apr 13
Having a big family may seem to be a lot more fun. But with the times that we have now, it is hard to raise a family. So couples should rather stick to a one or two kids so that they may be able to provide the basic needs of their children.
@ShyBear88 (59261)
• Sterling, Virginia
19 Apr 13
O have two older brothers. I would have liked to have one more sibling growing up either and older or younger sister would have been great to have. But my parents agreed once pregnant with ,e that they where done even though they both wanted another baby they got there I wish of having a girl and the job my dad had was demanding.
@Nursefrai06 (2498)
• Penrith, Australia
20 Apr 13
im happy with just having one sibling because im going to have to send my siblings to school when i get a proper job so if i have a lot of them, itll be hard for me and i wouldnt be able to make my own family because id have to let all of them finish first.
@gracie04 (4549)
• Philippines
18 Apr 13
Hi Aileen, I have two siblings, an older brother and a younger sister. I am closer to my younger sister.. We are alike in so many ways. For instance, music and movie choices, we are both addicted to gadgets (we like upgrading mobile phones every now and then and when budget permits us to do so), we also have the same taste when it comes to clothes but I could say that I have a better taste. LOL. I wish I had more brothers and sisters... An older sister would be awesome! I would like a sister that I would look up to.. Someone whom I can also share my secrets with. My younger sister and I have a lot of secrets. I was the very first person in the family who knew about her past relationships. It was only this month when she finally had the guts to tell my parents about her new boyfriend. At first, she was scared to tell my parents as they are known to be conservative and old-fashioned. But we were surprised when they accepted the boyfriend without saying anything bad against him. They just gave some reminders to my sister to use her head (not only her heart) when making decisions.
@mermaidivy (15395)
• United States
18 Apr 13
I only have one younger sister, I am very happy to have her, although we are 8 yearas apart, our relationship is close.
@averygirl72 (37544)
• Philippines
18 Apr 13
It depends, but I believe the more, the merrier. If you are only two you will eventually get bored teasing one another so you better just find cousins or gangs outside.
18 Apr 13
I have one elder sister who is 9 year older than me, sometimes we don't get along well with each. She is the one always like to judge others and she hates to listen others advices which are good for her. So if I can choose, I want a brother, coz I heard all my friends who have brothers, their brothers usually treat sisters very well, especially elder brothers.
@zension (15)
• China
18 Apr 13
I have a elder sister,I want more sibblings,but... now i have only son,but I want a daughter,and we have planned. it's probably next year
• China
18 Apr 13
you may know a family only can have one child in china ,to have the second is prohibited