Yesterday someone I know lent me this book to read. For those of you who aren’t able to read the image, the title is “Only Child: How to Survive Being One“.

I haven’t read the whole thing yet, but what I have read so far has confused/annoyed/irritated me enough to make me want to blog. I’m an only child, so of course I’m aware of all the stereotypes and judgements related to people who grow up without siblings, but even so, this book managed to astound me, WITH ITS EXTREME NEGATIVITY!

Like I said before, I haven’t finished reading it yet (and might well blog again when I do), so maybe it gets less whiny and “poor me” as it goes on, but what I’ve seen so far are a whole lots of case studies based on interviews with only children at various stages of their lives (some are teenagers, some are elderly) and the vast majority of them seem to be blaming the fact they are only children for all the difficulties they have encountered in their lives!

The majority of them said they hated it, at least part of the time, and one even went so far as to say that there wasn’t one day in their life when they didn’t wish for a sibling! I don’t know about you, but I think that’s awful!

Without getting too personal, I have to say that my experience of Only Child-ness (AKA My Life, the only life I’ve ever known!) has been pretty positive, and NORMAL! I don’t think I fit into the stereotypical only child mould (spoilt, attention seeking, difficult to get along with (unless you’re this guy!) maladjusted brat) and I don’t remember ever wishing for a sibling.

Amusingly, when I was telling Brooke about this book earlier today, she commented that the fact I am so normal, seems to make me abnormal! At least in the eyes of whoever wrote this book! o.O

I suppose what I’m trying to say is that I don’t see being an only child as something to be endured, or “survived”. Yes, some people might have some issues caused by the fact that they have no siblings, and that’s really unfortunate for them if they do, but in and of itself, I don’t think it’s really all that bad!? You could have issues being an oldest/middle/youngest/multiple too, surely!?

Are you/do you know an only child? Where do you fit in the Birth Order scheme of things? Do you believe that birth order is significant in shaping the kind of person you become?

I don’t think I ever want to see another one of these things in my entire life! Tonight I finally finished another of my 101 in 1001, which was to make 1000 paper stars! This isn’t a photo of my own collection (although mine did used to live in a glass Coke bottle too, until they no longer fit!), but as you can probably imagine, all paper star collections look rather similar!

I still have some star paper left, so realistically I’ll probably end up making more, for card and other people and scrapbooking and stuff, but certainly not in the next little while! I’ve got so used to doing it that I can do them and read blogs at the same time, and my left index finger seems to have developed a permanent indent!

Yay! Another thing accomplished! 22 now! With just over a year to go! Eeek!

Have you ever considered taking part in 101 in 1001?

Ok so it didn’t take long for me to get sick of that blue and green theme! It was far too plain for my liking, and wasn’t nearly pretty enough, hehehe! This one is a bit of a mish mash. I downloaded the original theme from the site on the footer, but didn’t like it how it was, so I changed the background and some of the CSS to make a it a bit more suitable. The basic theme is still the same though, so I figured the original designers still deserve credit. Ok and now the theme is actually ACTIVATED (and not just admin previewed), you might be able to see it – 4 hours after I first posted this entry! Holly = MORON.

Unfortunately, comment reply didn’t work very well with this theme, so, either temporarily or permanently (I haven’t decided yet) it has been deactivated.

In other news, Brooke and I were looking at LOLcats this morning and we found what we both (independently!) concluded were the kitteh versions of the two little girls mentioned in this post!

Aww! Poor rejected black kitteh! LMAO! I love the expression on the ginger cat’s face! It’s all squished and unimpressed looking! *giggle*

Yup. I KNOW always post musical theatre related songs, but I think they’re indicative of what I actually listen to, lol!! And besides, we all know how much I admire this woman and, upon having sent her fanmail, how genuinely lovely, NORMAL and awesome I have discovered her to be, heheh!

In other news, I finally go bored of my WP theme, so I uploaded another one. It looks fine to me (aside from not being colourful enough!), but Luke and Brooke inform me that they see some alignment problems. o.O

Does it look ok to you? If not, which browser are you using?

For most of this week, I have been being very entertained by two little girls at work. They’re both 5 years old, and the best of friends, but otherwise they could not be more different.

One of them is quite bright (the kind of little girl who could read and write fluently before she started school), while the other one has a learning difficulty and is frequently told to sit/stand still and listen to the staff.

To my amusement, Little Girl 2 annoys the crap out of Little Girl 1. I don’t think she INTENDS to annoy her, she just loves her and wants to play with her/follow her around/poke her/hug her. All the time. Little Girl 1 usually arrives earlier than her, so when she sees LG2 and her mum walking up the pathway to the door, she sometimes runs and hides somewhere, telling me “Nooo! Don’t want Susie¹!”

In some ways this is kind of sad, but on the other hand, it’s funny and cute, because after about 2 minutes she emerges (or LG2 finds her) and they happily play together. Most of the time!

Another reason these girls and their friendship amuses me is because in so many ways they remind me of myself and *a certain friend who shall remain nameless*! Heheh, I have a Mini Me!

Do you know any little kids who you think could be miniature versions of yourself or someone you know?

1. Not actually her name [↩]