Question of the Day: Thurs. March 3

2 parents, only child..it was kinda boring then to be honest But now looking back I'm happy this way, I don't think I would have preferred to have had siblings.
I didn't have a long term pet, I had bunnies and hamsters and guinea pigs, but my parents never thought I was responsible enough to take care of a larger pet, and they didn't have the time to do it because they both worked full time and were really into their careers, I guess they figured a kid is enough to worry about lol..

2 parents until i was 6, then just mama and us 4 girls, then i moved in with my dad (because my moms husband kicked me out at 10) and it was me and him until i graduated high school no pets because i was verrrry allergic (ive grown out of them so much now, but not completely) but i did have a beta fish named elvis for a long time, he was the coolest, i would put my lips to the glass and give him goodnight kisses and hed come up and puff up his neck...then i thought it was just him giving back kisses, but i grew up and realized he was actually threatened and trying to scare me off hahaha.

my room growing up was black, red, white and ELVIS! im obsessed with him, hes my dream guy haha (hence the name of my fishy)

my bf was an only child too, which is insane to someone with 3 older sisters, but he said he loved it! he said he never once felt like an only child because he had so many friends and it forced him to create stronger bonds with friends

For me it was harder to make friends having been an only child, because having any kind of friendship requires some kind of compromise...maybe you won't feel like going to the movies but your friend will really want to so you do it for them, etc...But I had trouble with this kind of stuff, I was used to always doing what I want, when I want it, etc..As a child I surrounded myself with "friends" who basically followed me around and it wasn't a balanced kind of friendship. It took a long time for me to learn how to be friends with people!! In fact I am still learning, and a lot of times instead of hanging out with people I choose to just hang out by myself and watch a movie or read a book, because I am on my own time, and I get exhausted by being around people, even if it's good friends, for a long period of time..

everyones different. he is still very much so a people person, but he has become much more of a homebody since we got our own place and brought jericho home. i like to think he just prefers us more than most of his friends now haha

I grew up with both parents (even though they hated each other, and still hate each other but are still together) Mike and Colleen, and one sister named Betsy. We had various pets growing up, mostly cats. We didn't get a dog until I was in 3rd grade, and then I brought another dog home when I was in high school. My mom loved that dog, even though she was so pissed at me for bringing it home. lol Mitzi and Tina were the cats we had the majority of growing up. Mitizi had kittens and we kept a boy, Lola. He was ran over by a car, though, and I was devastated. Dudley was our Beagle, and Nikki was our lap/chow mix. Then when I was in 8th grade I brought home a cat (after both Mitzi and Tina died) that my mom named Scooter, but I called him Baby.

My mom was always mean about our animals and would just take them and put them to sleep without telling us, and just say nonchalantly "I put so-and-so asleep today." The most devastating for me was Baby. I was VERY attached to him. I found him in a different town when I was in 8th grade and brought him home. I was visiting my friend's grandma with her and we found this TEENY solid black cat just wandering. He was very friendly, but super skinny and covered in fleas. We asked her mother for money and we walked to the general store and bought some flea bath/dip. We gave him a bath in the driveway outside. lol We kept him in bed with us while we were there and I brought him back with me. He turned out to have the thickest softest brown-black fur.

My bedroom was boring. It had floral wallpaper (YUCK! I have always hated floral/flower stuff!) and I slept on a white daybed. My bedspread changed almost every year. I had a desk next to my bed and a tall dresser. I loved to hang stuff on the wall, so my walls were completely covered (trying to cover up the floral?? lol) My favorite in high school was authentic house plans for a house I designed in architecture class at school. I still have it around here somewhere.

1 Granny
2 parents
3 brothers
1 Cat
3 Dogs
1 Parrot
1 turtle
1 fish

I think do not miss nobody........ a mini circus right?....

I grew up with two parents and two brothers, 90 percent of the time its unhappy because my mother hates me and won't speak if I'm in the same room

Two parents, two sisters 11 and 12 years older than me. Very abusive.. Dad was a mean alcoholic, my 2 sisters ran away from home when I was 7 or 8. They finally rejoined the family after my dad died when I was 15 years old. We had one dog and one cat. Both animals were poisoned by a neighbor.
After my dad died things got worse--if that's possible....
Anyway, I came through all that as a stronger person and i'm happy with my life now.

Two parents, a younger brother and a younger sister. Numerous cats and a couple dogs in the mix. Oh, and a hamster named Sam and a bunny named Peter.

2 parents
0 siblings
couple of hamsters (when I was little)
a few hermit crabs (when I was little, and a couple of years ago)
ton of fish (when I was a teen, until a few years ago)
2 newts (when I was about 12 or 13)
1 bunny named Patches (when I was 15)
The pets are all dead now.

Both parents, one older sister and three younger brothers. We had two yellow labs, and three cats. We had an old stray cat that came around all the time, my mom named him Scroungy.

I remember my carpeting was orange/brown shag. And the wallpaper was orange with white/yellow large flowers all over it. My sister and I picked it out!! Our bedroom window was right over the lower level family room, so we would go out our window and sunbathe on the roof.

I grew up with both parents, although they were separated for a couple of years and I lived with just my mom during those years. I had a sister who was 3.5 years older than me. We had a couple of dogs, which I never really considered mine because they were my dad's. We had several cats, but my mom didn't like having litter boxes inside, so they were mostly outside cats. From what I can recall, most of them simply stopped coming home at some point. We always hoped that someone had just taken them and adopted them, but we never really knew.

We had a two-story house with the bedrooms upstairs. We had a nice fireplace downstairs. One of the neatest things about my bedroom is that I took some glow-in-the-dark starts and put them on my ceiling. I didn't just put them up randomly - I actually took a star chart and put them up so that they matched the constellations. I remember lying in bed and staring up at them, thinking it was a lot like being outside on a clear night, just much more comfortable.

I grew up with Dad, two grandparents. Grandaddy died when I was 9. I had two sisters, one older and one younger. We always had cats, no other pets.
We had a barnyard cow that I loved. Grandma had to sell the cow when grandaddy died because my daddy wouldn't milk it.

2 parents
1 older brother
2 younger sisters
4 grandparents within a few blocks of me
1 black lab ( Butch)
1 black cat (Keke)
2 rabbits
1 guinea pig

I was brought up in an apartment in a very urban city. I had a very normal childhood with both mom and dad, two older brothers and one older sister. I was the youngest by 12 years so I was very spoiled and got just about everything I wanted. I have to say my childhood was a happy one but I did have a strict Italian father who didn't make my teen years very easy I miss both mom and dad tho very much.

Two parents, an older sister (5 years older), and older brother (6 years older). I played with friends and neighborhood kids, they played with each other. Sister and I hated each other. Get along fine once she left for college.

Dad was in PhD program for most of my younger years. I think it took him 7 years to complete his dissertation. Then he started teaching. Brother & sister were both out in college by the time I entered 5th grade, so a good part of middle/teen years were spent as "only child," which was fine with me. Mom went back to school when they left for college, then got a job by the time I went to high school, so I really didn't have to worry about my parents too much by then. I worked and kept my own schedule anyway. The only real rule is that if I was going to be out much beyond 10:00 I had to let them know.

We did LOTS of family stuff when my sister and brother were still around. We were the kind of family that played board games, went on picnics, picked apples in the fall, cut our own Christmas trees, went camping in the summer...

Both sets of grandparents were alive. They lived in PA, we were in suburb of Chicago. Every Thanksgiving/Christmas we traded off them coming to IL or us going there. LOVED taking the train with the dog to PA every other year! Spent a month every summer at the grandparents - two weeks with one set, two weeks with the other. My mom's parents were farmers and I LOVED spending August on the farm. (Grandpa raised chickens and sheep for breeding, and won heaps of awards for his animals. The State Fair was always when we were there, and we used to help prep the animals, get them to the show, were there for the judging... SO much fun!)

Pets:

A Irish Setter-Something mutt, Pavie (Pavlova), until I was about 4, then a Welsh Terrier, Kyffin, who was put to sleep when I was in college.

A goldfish I won at a little fair when I was in grade school died while I was in college.

Gerbils when I was in grade school for a few years.

My room:

We lived in a little house. Everyone called it "The Hobbit House." There were three bedrooms on the 2nd floor with the sloping roof you had to be careful not to bang your head on in numerous places. We never had doors on our rooms, though we kids were upstairs. We just tacked up curtains over the door frames.

Had one bathroom for all of us on the first floor, and no shower, only a tub. LOVED that giant cast-iron claw foot tub!

I painted my room in 4th grade - the bottom half sunny yellow, top white. Put up bookshelves. Dad oversaw me using the electric saw. Sanded and stained them myselves. Put up brackets to hang the shelves. I LOVED reading. My sister wound up with all my childhood books. I guess most were hers first.

In high school I moved into what had been my brother's room. There was a little roof that jutted out under one of the windows, and it was super easy to get in and out of the house from his room. From my old room I needed a ladder. From his it was easy to get up/down from the fence at the edge of the property.

I am an only child. I grew up in a single parent home raised by my mom. We also lived with...

My Grandfather - died when I was 4
My Grandmother - died when I was 7
My aunt - she was in and out of the house after I turned 13 or so.

Mostly it just been mom and I. I've enjoyed being an only child.

I recently met my father and several members on that side of the family this past May. It's kind of overwhelming but great at the same time. I went from 2 aunts and 1 uncle and only 4 cousins on my mom's side to having on my dad's side 3 uncles (2 deceased one as an infant) and 5 aunts and somewhere around 16+ cousins (one of whom I'm real close with ) It's been great getting to know them.

I can relate to the mother thing.

So blessed with 2 loving supportive parents and had siblings and pets. My house was great and on a bunch of land and my bedroom was great.

It was just Mom and I for awhile, in different apartments. My father was never in the picture and wanted nothing to do with me. Mom had my brother, Tyler, when I was 6. We lived in a 2 bedroom apartment in the same building as my grandparents, and they were a huge support system. Mom put herself through nursing school, but had one bad relationship after another. When I was 12 she got back together with and married Tyler's father, who was evil through and through and incredibly abusive to us all. (Mom divorced him finally when I was 18.) When I was 13, my brother Brody was born and has Down Syndrome. Shortly before he was born we all moved into a 3 bedroom minihome that my grandfather gave to my Mom. My bedroom was very small, but at least it was my own, and very much my safe haven.

We had numerous cats as I grew up, but they were always disposable objects that Mom would get rid of if they did anything to upset her. Lucky she has learned the error of those ways now.