Only children hold special roles and live differently than those with siblings, making them interesting and often overlooked. Classical birth order, a phenomenon adopted by psychologists and sociologists to describe the dynamic of the home and a child’s development, struggles to categorize only children. Unfortunately, parents do not receive encouragement to only raise one child. Culturally two to three children households act as commonplace.

Traditionally the oldest sibling holds specific traits of leadership and nurturing due to their interaction with younger siblings. The oldest sibling also holds inherent responsibility to serve as an example to their other siblings. Second-born children, unlike their older siblings, do not hold the same responsibility of helping raise others and thrive as the loved, childish, pampered child. Oddly enough, only children hold traits of both a younger and older child, complicating things but making life interesting.

Only children receive attention from their parents other children cannot receive because of sharing or extra commitments. Beneficial or not, only children interact primarily with adults, encouraging them to grow faster than the average child.

Only children can become notable figures due to their natural leadership abilities and early growth. Encouragement for their achievement by parents and special attention makes them valuable to society and as productive members of the workforce.

Individualism bred within only children fosters originality, explaining why many become revolutionary people. World renowned artists and actors John Lennon, James Dean, and Elvis Presley, only a few of the many influential only children, changed the lives of millions and entire genres of film and music.

The world we live in does not require anyone to have more than one child; almost all children born in our age survive to adulthood. In years to come, overpopulation will increasingly become an issue with resources being depleted fast, already we see the negatives of overuse and overpopulation. Economically, having a single child benefits society and the parents of the child with less needed to help and raise the kid.

Naturally children with siblings develop important social and life skills from the constant interaction between them. Lifelong friends develop from sibling relationships but in the end only children can develop the same skills on their own with people outside of the family. Often, only children learn how to speak and interact from adults making them effective at communication from a young age unlike most children. The kids who find themselves with adults grow to become better adults from learning early form them.  

Growing up, society should further encourage others to only have one child instead of expecting them to have multiple children. The special attention and love given to only children builds and better equips them for adulthood and develops them into better people.