What we learned this week #60

Well, doesn’t time just fly? It seems like just yesterday I was climbing aboard the good ship Quib.ly, helping the captain to swab the decks or something (the analogy falls down a bit there), but I’ve actually been here a full year this month. Who’d’a thunk it? Anyway, with that bit of narcissism out of the way, we’ve got a fun blog this week, and something a bit different: a couple of questions that caused some healthy debate and actually kind of play off each other. See, fun! (Still got it).

It’s always a good time to have a second kid!

It’s never a bad time to have a second kid!

Debate number one: what’s the right age to give your child a sibling? As asked by anonymous (active user that they are; they’re much friendlier on here than 4chan), and answered practically by Simon Munk:

‘From seeing myself and others, there’s no right time, but there’s two times that seem easier:

Very little gap – ie you have one year of mayhem with two kids in nappies, one a baby. Then they both start playing together and it gets dramatically easier. That’s what we did (by accident).

1. Very big gap – older one can look after younger, but you do have one kid starting to date while the other wants to jump in muddy puddles etc.’

And philosophically by Alexandra Mercer:

‘My advice would be not to worry about how your son will take it, giving your son a sibling is a positive thing, something precious. I, personally, think it’s a myth that siblings get jealous, we’ve never experienced this in our family.’

But you don’t have to have one!

Our own social media whizz Chanda Gohrani (hi Chanda!) asked if only children were perhaps at a ‘social disadvantage’, that growing up without siblings means they don’t learn to share or interact as well as other kids​? It’s actually quite the opposite, says Siobhan O’ Neill:

‘I am an only child and my mum would say no. She used to get annoyed that when other children came to play they were far more grabby of my toys and would often break them, where I was very respectful of other children’s toys.’

Although Ronita Dutta added:

‘The only downer about not having brothers and sisters is that when your parents get older, there’s nobody to share the burden of looking after them with.’

So there you go: have kids whenever you want, and have as many as you like! Yay!

About Tom

Tom Baker is a recent graduate from University of Derby's joint Creative Writing and Media Writing programmes. He has written lots of short stories, a whole mess of music writing, two poems, and a song about a mentally ill playwright.

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