One and Done with Rebecca Greene

On today's episode of the "Helping Families Be Happy" podcast, host Dr. Carla Marie Manly, talks with Rebecca Greene. She will be talking about her new book, one and done. Rebecca shares how does her work and her book in particular help families be happy.

Episode Highlights

• 1.50: Rebecca loves her job as a therapist, and she has been working with clients. One of the things she has realized was that only-child families don't have a lot of resources just dedicated to them.
• 03.10: When Rebecca noticed the lack of guides for only child families, it made me realize that there was a wonderful opportunity to write a how-to parenting guide self-help book specifically tailored for only child families. 
• 04.47: Rebecca discusses the blessings and challenges in raising an only child.
• 05.24: In today's society, most of the time both parents working outside of the home, or if it's a single parent family with that parent working outside of the home, time and energy are in short supply these days. So many parents make the decision to have one child because they feel that they can best raise a child when they get all of their time and energy rather than diluting it amongst multiple children.
• 05.55: Some families make their decision to have one child based on finances makes sense. They decide that they can live their best life if they have one child that they put all of their financial resources toward.
• 07.01: Rebecca talks about socializing issues faced by a single child.
• 08.20: One of the stereotypes of only children is that they are always lonely, says Rebecca.
• 09.37: In case of a single child parents can feel obligated to play with their child 24/7, like all the time which can cause burnout in the parents and many times parents, especially if they work from home or working full time, they just don't have a lot of time and energy left over to necessarily spend hours after work playing with their child. 
• 11.20: It has been shown research wise that only children are very successful academically and, in their career, and that has been attributed to the fact that parents spend so much time one-on-one with their child.
• 12.18: Many only children excel academically in school. They go on to excel and become leaders in their career field. Especially because they have had so much practice being leaders at home and many times with their friends only children have been shown to have very high levels of self-confidence and self-esteem. 
• 13.10: It is a very widely held stereotype about only children, that only children are always spoiled, that they can't share with other kids, that their social skills are not as good as children, growing up in families with siblings, but that actually are stereotypes, says Rebecca.
• 14.18: Parents can be very mindful when raising only child to make sure they have a realistic view of wants versus needs and to make sure that they have a balance in their life, so they get some of what they want.
• 17.43: Rebecca's book is written for both families who are one and done by choice, and also for families who are one and done not by choice.
• 19.26: Rebecca interviewed families from the UK, Australia, France, Japan, a variety of different countries, because she wanted to include what it's like to raise an only child in other countries

3 Key Points

1. Rebecca's book is not meant to help parents make the decision to have one child it is when readers start the book, they have already made that decision. It is a step-by-step parenting guide to help parents.
2. Rebecca shares how many only children really nurture their creative sides because they are very resourceful. 
3. Rebecca explains how it can be challenging to have a smaller family than one would have otherwise preferred.

Tweetable Quotes

• "I myself is an only child and I am raising an only child and my perspective as a parent and as an only child myself and as a therapist who works with families who have only children and are experiencing different issues related to that, it all made me realize that there should be more books dedicated to the topic of raising only children." -  Rebecca
• "I have experienced what it feels like to be left out socially because we have one child and there wouldn't be a friend for the child that my son would like to hang out. So, it that can be really, really distressing." - Rebecca
• "When kids get some of the things that they want and many of the things that they need, that's a healthy balance. What becomes an unhealthy balance is when kids get everything, they need plus everything they want all the time." - Rebecca

Resources Mentioned

• Helping Families be Happy Podcast Apple
• Familius Instagram Facebook Twitter
• Rebecca Greene Instagram 
• https://www.rebeccagreeneauthor.com/
• Podcast Editing