When I was a little girl, thinking about my future family, I planned on being famous (of course), marrying a knockout husband, living in a huge mansion and mothering nine children (I was an avid baseball fan, so I wanted enough children to form my own team). Well, in my real life adulthood, the only thing that came true was marrying a knockout husband. We have one little girl, and in raising her, I’ve noticed seven things only moms of only children can know.

1. It’s pretty much impossible not to spoil an only child

   We tried to avoid this one. Honest. Grandparents were given gift limits. Early on, we said she’d only get big gifts for her birthday and Christmas. However, for our only child, those holidays are two weeks apart. Can we really be expected to wait 50 weeks before getting her anything big? Hand-me-down anything isn’t really a thing for an only child (although we do get a ton of clothes from our friends). I give in, she’s going to be spoiled, and it’s our job to make sure she appreciates the value of all this stuff.

2.  All the toys are yours.

   Along those same lines, let’s consider objects of play. Moms with athletes, think about how many balls and gloves you have lying around. Well, the only way an only child gets sports equipment is if they come in the form of exclusive gifts. With few exceptions, every new toy coming into the house of an only child belongs to that child alone. I remember holding my breath the first time our child had to share toys in the church nursery. It went off OK, thankfully.

I'm thankful to be sharing space with the writers at Her View From Home this week. You can continue reading here.