The Dead Giveaways That Someone Is An Only Child
Reddit user imlovegina asked: 'What is a dead giveaway that someone is an only child?'
A lot has been written about birth order among siblings and how it affects personality.
Not that everyone agrees on the effects.
Some say the oldest is the family rebel, while others say they're the ultimate conformist and rule follower.
Others assign those roles to the middle child.
But pretty much everyone agrees the youngest child is spoiled.
So does that mean an only child takes all those dynamics to form their personality?
The folks of Reddit sure has some thoughts on the matter.
Reddit user imlovegina asked:
"What is a dead giveaway that someone is an only child?"
Trust
"I told my boyfriend to close his eyes and open his mouth (I was surprising him with candy) and he just did it with no suspicion at all."
"People with siblings can’t trust like that."
- cowsofoblivion
Limited Pop Culture
"I’m an only child. One huge difference I see time and time again with those who have siblings—they had much more exposure to a longer timespan of media/music/games growing up. My idea of nostalgia consists of my specific timeline of media growing up, but those with siblings were able to watch tv shows their older brother watched, or knows about that game their little sister played."
- DopeYeti
"Yeah, the media you get is what your parents get for you. So PS2 was my only console since I requested one for my birthday and that's really it. Bigger families might have older siblings have older consoles, media, movies etc."
- Top_Lengthy
No "I'm Going to the Bathroom"
"I heard once only children are less likely to announce where they are going when they leave a room. Right away I realised I do that, but my partner who grew up with 2 sisters tells me where he’s about to go when he moves, even if it’s to the bathroom."
- NucularOrchid
"Now that im in my 30s I’ve trained myself to say where I’m going when I leave a room but it STILL feels so awkward when I do it."
"I also distinctly remember being confused in my first few relationships when people told me they were going to the restroom (okay?) and irritated when I would get up to go and they’d ask me where I’m going (like, we’re in a 1 b/r apartment and I’m not walking out the door, there are only so many options.)"
Anger is Fleeting
"My bf is an only child and it was his confusion at how I can be mad at my sister (who is also my roommate) one minute and turn around and get ice cream or go see a movie together."
He grew up with a bunch of cousins around his age, but it was the quick turnaround of 'I’m so mad at you' to 'I wanna hang out, let’s do something.'"
- sister-christian69
"Hypothesis: I think we don’t have practice of dealing with conflict. I had an argument with someone a few years back and I fully expected it to be awkward between us when we saw each other the next day, but she (not an only child) started chatting with me like everything was fine. I was taken aback and thought this would have lasted for much longer."
- RaspberryTurtle987
My Food is Mine
"My husband HATES sharing food! He is also very good at keeping himself entertained and busy- this was very evident during Covid when I was soooo bored and lost because all my previous hobbies and pastimes were outside the home and/or social activities, however, he just kept going and picked up so many new little hobbies that were independent"
- badjmsbe
"I have a brother and I hate sharing food as well. Some people say that having siblings can teach you to share things but, if anything, having a brother made me extra selfish."
- reforged-demon-blade
"I don’t hate sharing food…but I order food for me + me later fully expecting what I ordered to be there and my gf usually takes some. Drives me insane lol, and she knows if f**ks with my ADHD bc I will stare at the fridge thinking wait, when did I eat that?! Her after wondering what Im looking for: Sorry babe, I ate it."
- huhteeee
Siblings ≠ Friends
"Thinking friendship is like having siblings. It's not. I would never smash a toy on my friend's head and expect them to speak to me after."
- Useful_Jello2910
"I wouldn’t have teamed up with my best friends against their parents or refused to listen to their parents… but me and my sister? Like a two-man army in us vs. our parents battle"
- aw-f*ck
"Yep. Whenever my siblings and I would unionize, we were unstoppable."
- KitchenSwillForPigs
Not Expecting Snack Theft
"From personal experience, food habits. Like buying snacks to store at home and fully expecting them to not have been touched when you’re gone, or eating slower at the dinner table because you’re not fighting over the good food."
"As a teen, on the rare occasion my dad would steal a snack I got for myself I’d freak out, whereas my friends with siblings just resigned themselves to the fate of snacks inevitably disappearing. My mom eats super fast at meals, and she attributes it largely to growing up with siblings."
- HornedTwiddle
"I think this is why I get so peeved when my 14 year old eats all of something I specifically bought because I wanted it. I’ll share with him, but he’s a garbage disposal and will pound an entire bag/box/pack of something in no time, and I get so annoyed. My husband thinks I’m ridiculous but I never had to share or worry about someone else eating my things growing up haha"
- pizzainertia
Doesn't Automatically Shield Face
"No tales of sibling violence"
- ButterEmails54
"Doesn't flinch when someone makes a fist quickly"
- islandsimian
"Yesssss my boyfriend doesn't understand (not that he makes fist at me!!! Just that I flinch a lot.). Also don't throw things at me expecting me to catch it - my instinct is to shield my face."
- Bacon_Bitz
"Oh my god yes. Youngest child here, I also have twelve older cousins, and the amount of things I got thrown at me when I was too little to catch them."
- Dependent_Shower_584
Good At Self Entertaining
"Pretty good at keeping ourselves entertained or doing things alone/being independent."
- stefeezy
"And I find that most of us need alone time. I can be pretty sociable but it can get overwhelming quick. I need alone time every day or my stress levels rise to a point where I can't handle it. Even in a relationship, if we spend all day home, I must be able to do my thing while he does his thing. This has caused me issues in the past, as if I didn't care to be around my partner."
- thinksotoo
"Yup, this is one of the main ones. We are not lonely either, we enjoy our solitude (at least I do)"
- AlwaysSunnyDragRace
Better With Adults
"I can't tell for adults, but when it's one of my kids' friends, the kid who ends up trying to hang out with the adults and gets overwhelmed by being in a group of kids has been an only child 100% of the time in my experience."
- ifnotmewh0
"Yes! I teach middle school, and I can usually spot the only kids by seeing which students gravitate towards chatting with me rather than their peers during downtime. They seem more comfortable and confident just hanging out with the older person in the room."
- catsandcabsav
"I was one of these kids. I knew the adults didn't want me around. I had to choose between two uncomfortable situations, and I could handle being in the way more than the chaos with the other kids."
- needhelpweverything
Less Lonely
"From my own experience, not being as prone to loneliness. The only time I really feel lonely is when I'm around people I'd rather not be with."
- DeathSpiral321
"You can very quickly detect when you don’t fit in or are a third wheel too. Kind of sucks but it means you don’t waste your time with people either."
- Grimvold
"Exactly. My GF and I are only children. We both need a few nights a week on our own which is why we don’t live together. Even when we’re together we can sit quietly doing our own thing for considerable periods of time until we have something important to discuss."
- bjb13
Make Their Own Decisions
"I am an only child… I’ve noticed I tend to make a lot of life choices on my own and don’t seek out a lot of advice or ask for help when I could definitely use it. In fact, I’ve been pretty deep in tough situations when I finally have the realization that there are people and resources I can utilize. It’s not so much I’m worried about asking for help, more like it doesn’t even register in my brain that there is help outside of myself."
- Jaded_Syrup2454
"The inherent guilt of troubling people and asking for help."
- Lycan_Trophy
"I feel called out lol. Only child and this is such a common complaint I receive from my friends and partners, them saying I should ask for help for often. My logic is, well I have to learn it alone anyway. Their logic is, you don't have to right now."
"It's not something I can just turn off ... but I'm working on it. Some times. When I feel safe being vulnerable lol"
- MoodyBootyBoots
Choose Relationships Carefully
"They are very deliberate in their chosen relationships, e.g. friendships, partners, and are usually extremely independent, at least in my experience."
- ffffffffck
"As an only child I have to agree with the deliberation in my relationships."
"I've never used the term "friend" lightly like many people seem to. I see people all the time call others friends when they don't know much about the person and are just friendLY with them. I don't consider someone a friend until we've grown closer and I feel I can genuinely trust them and we can go to each other for help"
- Skeletor118
Quiet Roommates
"They’re very quiet roommates in my experience. Sometimes don’t even know when they’re home. I hypothesize that they’re just used to quiet spaces and might feel uncomfortable when their surroundings get loud or chaotic. People with siblings are used to other people clanging around and making noise."
- IcyConsideration4714
"Yeah I'm an only child of a single mom and spend enormous amounts of time home alone as a child. Can confirm, I'm extremely quiet."
- Yak-F*cker-5000
Unique Parent Relationships
"Really unique relationships with parents. They usually have a very rigid idea and perception their parents. For example, I have to call my mom every day or else she’ll worry, or my dad is always right about _____. I guess when you have siblings there’s more diversity in how you perceive your parents and their actions. But with only children they seem to lack that holistic perspective."
- ninaw11
"My ex was was exactly like the first example! She'd call her mom every morning and would talk a lot every day. It was pretty wholesome to me."
- RaimiKu
"This specifically. I live in a different continent than my parents and we talk every single day. They still ask for my opinion on every decision we take as a family and that has been my family dynamics as long as I can remember."
What trends have you noticed among the only-children you know?
Six-Year-Old Boy Sings Justin Bieber Love Song To His Newborn Brother With Down Syndrome In Sweet Video
This is the adorable moment a six-year-old boy sang a Justin Bieber love song to his newborn brother with Down syndrome.
Little Tripp Grieve spent his first month in hospital after being born with the genetic condition.
His big brother Rayce, six, assured his mom Nicole Powell, 29, he'd always look out for his precious brother - and asked to give him a cuddle one morning.
And the mom-of-five was left smiling when the schoolboy started singing "their song" — "10,000 Hours" by Dan + Shay & Justin Bieber.
Nicole Powell / SWNS
She captured the touching moment on her phone, to send to husband JJ, 39.
Police officer Nicole also posted it on her Facebook - where the clip amazingly racked up more than 8 MILLION views.
Nicole, from Cabot, Arkansas, said:
"It's amazing. I had wondered our purpose - of why now do we have a baby with Down syndrome. I think maybe it was to bring love and awareness. People are so terrified of what can happen. But he's perfect. It's super scary, but parenthood is scary in general. I'm so proud of my sons."
Nicole and husband JJ, who owns a car sales business, found out Tripp would likely have the condition during scans before he was born.
Nicole Powell / SWNS
She admits they were "not educated" about Downs syndrome and said doctors warned he could have major heart problems.
"Honestly I was really terrified because I wasn't educated at all about Down syndrome, and I hadn't been around anyone with Down syndrome," she said, adding:
"I had this horrible picture in my head and I was thinking the absolute worst. My biggest fear was I was afraid of the future. I was uneducated and didn't understand. I thought 'I have four other children, they all love each other, I just want them to love him the same way they love each other.'"
"We explained to them early. I didn't know much but I told them what I did know. We told them it just means he will be different but he's still your brother. The boys answered and told us 'but we're all different.' And we were like 'ok, this is going to be fine.'"
Nicole Powell / SWNS
She said later scans revealed his heart was healthy, and when she finally saw him when he was born via c-section on November 21 he was "absolutely perfect."
After a month in the hospital he came home to the family - including Jayce, nine, Rayce, six, Grayce, two, and Reese, one, on Christmas Eve.
On the way home in the car the love song "10,000 Hours" came on the radio, and Rayce started singing it to his little brother.
Nicole Powell / SWNS
"Both the boys love music," said Nicole.
"Rayce was saying 'this song is about me and you' - he doesn't know it's about a husband and wife. He decided it was 'their song.'"
She woke up on December 30 and took Tripp in to see Rayce and Jayce, and the eldest was listening to the song on YouTube, and asked to hold his brother.
Nicole Powell / SWNS
He cradled him and stared into Tripp's eyes while he sang the song:
"I'd spend ten thousand hours and ten thousand more. Oh, if that's what it takes to learn that sweet heart of yours. And I might never get there, but I'm gonna try. If it's ten thousand hours or the rest of my life.I'm gonna love you."
Nicole Powell / SWNS
She posted the video online before she went to bed, and was surprised when it received 90 likes before she fell asleep.
But she woke up to see it had been viewed a million times overnight, and a week later it has more than 8,000,000 views.
You can check out Dan + Shay and Justin Bieber's official "10,000 Hours" music video below:
Being the oldest also means bearing a ton of the responsibility. Usually, responsibility you never asked for.
And that's tough. You need to have your 'you' time! But when you grow up as the oldest sibling, sometimes that can be totally difficult to come by.
u/VileZ_ asked:
Oldest Siblings of Reddit, What do you hate about being the oldest sibling?
Here were some of those answers.
Chasten Buttigieg has won the hearts of tons of people as his husband, Pete Buttigieg, campaigns across the nation for the presidency.
People have fallen for Chasten's charisma, his intellect, his "realness" and his warmth.
Recently, Chasten opened up to The Washington Post about how this new-found popularity has affected him and how that popularity hasn't exactly translated to his family life.
As far as potential "first spouses" go, Chasten is unique. He's still in his twenties, the campaign is happening in the first year of his marriage, he is the first in his family to graduate from college and he and Pete are a same-sex couple.
Chasten Buttigieg is a story of firsts.
One of the major firsts in his life has to do with his family. Chasten is the first member of the LGBT+ community in his working-class, mid-western, conservative Christian family. Coming out didn't come so easily to him, but Chasten Buttigieg insists nobody was entirely surprised.
He told The Washington Post that he was entirely different from his two older brothers his whole life. They were athletes; Chasten preferred reading, theater, and Celine Dion ballads.
In their small High School, about 500 students total, there were no openly LGBT+ students - but that didn't prevent Chasten from standing out enough to be bullied, called homophobic slurs and get flung around by his backpack in physical attacks.
Eventually, Chasten applied to an exchange program that sent him to live in Germany for a brief period of time.
It was there that he finally confessed that he had been:
"scratching and itching and clawing to try to change whatever brain chemistry was making me the way I was."
Rather than reject him, the friends he made in Germany just gave him a word to go with how he was feeling - gay. Chasten Buttigieg accepted his homosexuality for the first time while in Germany. He knew it would change his whole world back home.
He wasn't wrong.
When he told his friends, they mostly responded by telling him that they loved him. However, there was a sharp divide in that love. Some loved him just the way he was, but others loved him by telling him he should turn to God to fix him.
That sentiment was later echoed in his family by his brothers, but we will get there.
First, he told his parents. He sat them down in the living room and handed them a letter filled with words he couldn't bring himself to say aloud.
After reading it, his mother's response shocked him.
"I remember my mom crying, and the first thing she asked me was if I was sick. I think she meant, like, did I have AIDS?"
His father opted for silence and Chasten spent what felt like ages getting the cold shoulder from his once warm and loving family.
Then he heard his brother utter the words that convinced him he wasn't safe at home:
"No brother of mine …"
At that point, he made the difficult decision to leave, feeling safer homeless than he did with his family. Chasten spent time couch surfing or sleeping in his car in the parking lot of his university.
It took months, but eventually his parents asked him to come back home. Their next conversations on his sexuality clearly went better than their first.
When Chasten and Pete fell in love, his parents were thrilled and proudly walked Chasten down the aisle to his future husband.
That loving acceptance hasn't come from his brothers, though. According to Chasten they just never got past it.
To this day Chasten has no relationship with either of his older siblings. One declined to be interviewed for The Washington Post piece.
The other, Rhys, who is now a Christian minister in Michigan admitted that Chasten coming out was not at all a surprise. Everyone had known since childhood.
However, knowing Chasten was born this way didn't mean the minister could accept it.
He simply stated:
"I want the best for him. I just don't support the gay lifestyle."
People With Siblings Reveal Life Lessons An Only Child May Not Understand
The grass is always greener.
Only children want siblings. Siblings want to be only children. There is no winning.
But both sides come with lessons and lifestyles unknown to the other. And siblings seem to have a leg up on little things, here and there.
u/Pbackrider asked:
Children in multi-sibling households, what lessons did you learn that the only child might never get?
Here were some of those answers.