8 reasons to have an only child:

I copied this idea, and some of these points, from Renee at A Baker's Dozen. I just had to do my own version, because she was so spot on. I also added some gifs to illustrate my points. :)

So, here we go, 8 reasons to have an only child-

1. You only have to deal with this stage once:

Not my favorite age or stage.

2. You only have to go through this once (or not at all, if you adopt your only child):

This was me about 30 minutes before Nathan was born. For me, birth gets worse every time because of the anticipation.

3. You don't have to deal with the noise and the chaos (!!) that follows having multiple children in the house:

 

It is way harder than it may look to try to read to multiple young children at once. I almost always end up wanting to pull my hair out.

Nope. Sorry. Can't do it. Too much crazy.

4. The expectations placed on you by society will be way lower. If your only kid goes out with messy hair, a tutu over his or her jeans, mismatched socks, and sparkly shoes, people will smile and praise you for letting them "express themselves" or "be an individual." Go out with 3 or more kids, if just one of your children is dressed like that, you are clearly overwhelmed and neglectful. 

I don't even try to match their socks anymore. No shame. 

 

5. You only have to go through the trauma of potty training once. 'Nuff said. 

Not my kid. But he may as well be. 

What I would rather do than potty train.

6. Fostering independence is admired in only children. If your first child can buckle her own car seat, make herself a sandwich, and be depended on to do chores around the house or get herself ready for the day, she is praised for being bright and helpful. If you require that of any later kids, they are pitied for having to fend for themselves.

Yeah, because the Duggar kids have turned out to be total trainwrecks. With all of that responsibility they've been shouldered with their whole lives.

7. If your only child is sleeping or otherwise occupied, you can have free time to yourself without guilt or worry that you are neglecting someone else. 

8. You probably have the time and energy to make yourself look fabulous every time you leave the house.

At this point, I'm doing good just to have all body parts covered when I leave the house. Two words: train. wreck.

 Butttttt, since there are tradeoffs for every decision, having 1 child also means you miss out on so many awesome people. 

This amazing kid. #2.

This is Sammy, #5. What a total blessing he is to me.

These brothers. #3, 4, and 5. 

#6 and #7. How adorable are they.

And you miss out on seeing amazing sibling relationships. One of the best parts of being a mother, in my opinion...

And just plain awesome moments like this, you would miss out on if you only have 1 child...

I'm not trying to convince anyone to have a ton of kids. It's difficult, and I don't know how I do it most days, let alone moms with more kids than I have! There are benefits to both sizes of families- large and small. :)