George Leppla wrote:
>
>> When I was young I was not interested in having kids, hence our kid's
>> only child status. Sometimes I wish we had had more. I have a great
>> relationship with my son.
>
>
> There are a lot of people who have good relationships with their
> children and I am truly happy for them. But my own parents had some
> serious problems and when I was young, I didn't have the skills,
> experience or temperament to be a good parent. If I would have had
> children, they (and I) would have had a tough time of it.
>
> It appears to me that children can be the source of a parent's greatest
> joy..... or greatest sorrow.


I am not going to say that there were no some trying times. There were
certainly some frustrations. Maybe it was easier to cope with because
there was only one and fewer dynamics to interfere.

My brother is law has had a little more than most people can handle from
his kids and over the past few years has become estranged from all of
them. They were all darned near perfect when he married my SiL about 10
years ago. He was very proud of his daughter's prowess at making money
until he found out that she was not making her money in real estate the
way he thought she was, but my scamming people out of money. When she
got busted for fraud he was disgusted with what he finally came to
realize was sociopathic behaviour. One son was upset with him because he
thought Dad was not doing enough for her. The other was upset with him
for doing too much for her. He couldn't win.