Being an only child ‘mats ie o spend a tetine without bathers an sisters asks Joanne Mcoreed A. Sam Thompson, aged 10 When my mum's friend had a baby. it made me think about being an only child for the fist time. | thought, would | like to have brothers and sisters? But to be honest, ny fiend’s sister looked quite annoying he was always having to watch her and | cided I was better off on my own. There are lots of good things about being an only chil. Ihave privacy, and I lke that; some of my friends have to share a bedroom and | know that will never happen to me. Plus | get time on my own with Mum and Dad, ‘and that's very special. B_ Jasmine Weller, aged 13 | always feta bit diferent from other kids, and just thought it was something about me. Then | made friends with three other people who are all only children. | suddenly realised that they felt a lot like me. We all need to spend quite a lat of time on our ‘own, and some of our fiends with brothers and sisters find that strange ~ they think we don’ ike them or something, However, there are pluses, too. I think it's ‘200d to be able to entertain yourself sometimes, and my mum says Ive got a great Imagination. al Bethany Shaw, aged 15 One of the bad things about being an only child when you're young is the reaction you get from other people. They think you're spoilt - you see that look in their eyes. And then you have to prove you're not spol, although you know you're not and nor are ‘most only children. In general, | think the negatives outweigh the positives, but on the other hand i's all 've known and I'm OK with it D_ Leah Mitchell, aged 29 | went away to school when Iwas seven, and the hardest thing | found was making fiends. Because | was an only chil, | just didn't know how to doit. The thing is that wien youte an only child, often there arent any other children ata gathering. | found beeing an only child interesting, in tha it gave me a place atthe grown-ups’ table and gave me a view into thei world that chilren ina big family might not get. And | know ithas, atleast partly, made me into the person | am: I never lke the idea of being one ofa group, for example. I'm not comfortable with boing one of a gang E Laura Amold, aged 36 | know some only children feo! stifled by their parents’ constant demands and worries, but that wasn't my experience. | found being an only child enriching, which 1 think is mainly because we get on so well. 've got two children now and I do find that scary. The problem is I've absolutely no experience of this kind of situation; nothing ir my past has prepared me for having to divide myself between the needs of these two little people, and the gult is hard when | fee! I've not been there enough for one of ‘them. And on a practical level, things like sibling rivalry are going to be whole new ball game. §8LIVEWORKSHEETS.(Cereals olen EXAM ADV (3 You are going to read a newspaper article bout people wha have no brothers or sisters. For questions 1-10, choose from the people (A-E. The peopl maybe chosen mere than once, Read te questions, then uit read the tents, When you fn the part of text which matches the question, underine it. Which person realises that the postive eationshp they had with their parents isn't shared by ll only chider? 1 thinks people makes judgement about only children which s mistaken? 2 thinks they developed a better understanding of adults because of being an only child? 3 find their present circumstances a challenge? 4 says that only children have needs which canbe ofcu for others to deal wth? 5 realsed ata particular point that they were hapoy being en only child? é was unaware that their reactions to being an only child were not unique? 7 had problems as actild because they lacked a necessary kil? 8 says they accept ther stuaton because they don't krow anything different? 9 mentions @postve benefit of spending alot of time alone? 0 LIVEWORKSHEETS.