Now, I have a whole new way to consider parenting her -- a way that is the total opposite of my extroverted instincts.

In the absence of siblings, it is easy for only children to depend on their parents for companionship.

These are declarations that I -- and other moms of only children -- really don't want to hear. Questions we really don't want to answer. So be kind.

During the process of deciding whether or not to have another child, I heard often from people that it was "wrong" to have only one if it was possible, health-wise, to have more. One person even called it a "disservice" to my first child.

I don't think my take on this is unreasonable. Nor does my husband, who likes to sleep in even more than I do.

I think with one child, I could more easily trick myself into believing that I could set the pace of our lives, that I could still be this semi-massive orbit and my children would drift along by virtue of gravitational pull. I could be center and still be a mother.

The one-child household is the fastest growing family unit in the U.S., and now outnumbers those with two children. On my own street, four of the nine families with kids have a single child. So our daughter is unlikely to be the only "only" in her kindergarten class.

"Only," as an adjective, modifies the word "child." He is your "only child." We don't ask of lottery winners: Is this your only million? That would seem to be looking a gift horse in the mouth, questioning an obvious surfeit from a position of condescension.

Seth threw a tantrum and declared that we always make him do things he doesn't want to do. This statement could not be further from the truth.

Welcome to the world of having an only, where every day someone is checking out my belly or blatantly asking me why Junior doesn't have a biologically, built-in-the-U.S.-of-me playmate.

Wanting just one child didn't make me a bad mother and it didn't make us less of a family.

Dear Susan, My brothers and their families are coming to stay with us this summer for two weeks. Between them, they have five children. As an only ...

By Susan Newman, Ph.D. Within a few months of my son's birth, I was put on the questioning block, "When are you having another?" I heard that almos...

It's not like she can't get one dad or the other to sit on the floor and enact elaborate serial dramas involving Barbie talent shows. But there comes a point when pretend-play fatigue sets in. And we adults reach that point long before she does.

When my son was two and all the other mothers were remembering to have a second, I was still exhausted (and breastfeeding) and wanting to find time to write and think and sit down for a minute.

We're passing one of those nostalgia-infused candy shops when I spot him. At seven, he's about the same age and size as my 4-foot-3-inch hulk of a son...

What they are really asking: Does this whole kid thing ruin or life, or did it work for you? In a way, my husband and I can't answer the question because both are true.