The Following are two Letters written by Bernice to The Telegraph and The Sunday Times and , both of which were retitled to coincide with the only child sterotype!

 
From The Telegraph: 7.2.2004
A lonely existence
Bernice Sorensen, Chideock, Dorset


Last Updated: 9:27PM GMT 06 Feb 2004
Sir - I was interested to read about the increasing prevalence of only children. An only child myself, I have been carrying out in-depth interviews with adult only children, to learn what they consider to be the impact of their experiences.
Although one can be fun, it can also be lonely and isolating. The fact that there are increasing numbers of only children has not meant, as the article illustrates, any less prejudice towards them. My research suggests that only children do feel different – a result, I think, of not having to establish a separate identity from a sibling. While interviewing adult only children, I did not find that singledom was seen as an explanation for the way they are in life, as Ann Laybourn suggests.
Rather they used statements like: "I have always felt different", "I feel weird compared with others", and "Everyone else knows the social rules except me".
Interestingly, one of the most common responses after several hours of interviews was a sense of relief that others express the same feelings. Few had considered their feelings might be a result of being an only child.
As a psychotherapist, I have seen adolescent only children who say the same as my adult co-researchers.
 
From The Sunday Times
February 22, 2004
Letters to the Editor: Only the lonely
AN area that was unexamined on the subject of population decline is the psychological impact of the increasing numbers of only children on future social policy. A great deal of emphasis has been placed on reducing the population and little on the effects of what is now popularly known as the “beanpole” family.
My research on the experiences of only children, in child and adulthood, highlighted that only children have a different way of experiencing the world — often characterised by feelings of difference, isolation, aloneness, and over-responsibility. They tend to avoid conflict and challenge, preferring to keep the peace and the status quo. While seeking intense relationships, they also seek physical and emotional space.
How will this affect a society predominantly characterised by the nuclear family rather than the extended family? A sense of alienation is already endemic. Having more beanpole families is unlikely to change this.
Bernice Sorensen 
www.onlychild.org.uk