Selfishly, I think it's kind of really cool for a parent to have an only child.

Isn't a kid alive who doesn't dream about rewarding her folks, or punishing them.

Fathers. Mothers. With all their caring and attention. They will f--- you up, every time.

When you're a parent you find yourself looking at the unknown that is your child, trying to find a piece of yourself inside her, because sometimes that is what it takes to claim.

Only-child parents try to run interference on virtually every level in every facet of a child's existence, and that's really not fair because it really leaves a child open for all sorts of disappointments -- major disappointment. If you don't get a child involved early on with as many peer situations as possible, you're in deep trouble.

Why isn't there a commandment to "honor thy children" or at least one to "not abuse thy children"? The notion that we must honor our parents causes many people to bury their real feelings and set aside their own needs in order to have a relationship with people they would otherwise not associate with. Parents, like anyone else, need to earn respect and honor, and honoring parents who are negative and abusive is not only impossible but extremely self-abusive. Perhaps, as with anything else, honoring our parents starts with honoring ourselves. For many adult children, honoring themselves means not having anything to do with one or both of their parents.