Basic Trope: Only children are stereotyped as lonely, independent, selfish, or spoiled.
- Straight: Alice tends to be independent and a bit self-centered due to her upbringing as an only child. She often feels lonely as a result, having difficulty connecting with others her own age.
- Exaggerated: Because she was an only child, Alice is extremely self-absorbed, never considers others' needs and wants, and thinks people who grew up with siblings are all deprived or neglected in some way.
- Downplayed: Alice sometimes finds it difficult to relate to her peers with siblings and is more self-sufficient, but otherwise isn't that much different from the characters aren't only children.
- Justified: Alice's parents had tried for a baby for years before Alice was finally born. Because she's their only child and something of a 'miracle' to them, they tended to spoil her.
- Inverted: Alice has seven siblings and she was born right in the middle; as such she has issues due to feeling ignored by her parents and constantly competing with her siblings.
- Subverted: Alice's brother, Bob, is introduced.
- Double Subverted: Bob isn't actually her brother- he is just her friend who is treated Like Brother and Sister.
- Parodied: Alice's brother Bob dies. She then immediately starts acting spoiled and proud, like she was an only child her whole life.
- Zig-Zagged: ???
- Averted: No personality traits are ascribed to Alice being an only child. She either acts like the characters with siblings or her traits are attributed to some other factor.
- Enforced: Alice had a sister in early drafts, but the editors cut this character so Alice would be more independent.
- Lampshaded: "Of course you're like that, Alice; you're a classic only child."
- Invoked: Alice has to act like a stereotypical only child for an operation and starts acting spoiled and self-centered.
- Exploited: ???
- Defied: Even though she has no siblings, Alice's parents are careful not to spoil her. They also surround her with lots of children her age. The reason? They don't want her to become a "stereotypical only child".
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
- Deconstructed:
- Alice's grandparents are firm believers of this trope, so they unstoppably beg Alice's parents to have more kids to avoid making Alice becomes their only child, despite her parents don't want to and/or unable to do so, causing lots of internal conflicts within family.
- Alice feels distress she is the only one who isn't allowed to do "mature" things in her family, so she starts involving in several mature things just like her parents, which lead to her Troubling Unchildlike Behavior.
- Reconstructed:
- Alice doesn't have any sibling, but she has a cousin, who happen to be the only child just like her, so they start visiting each other more frequently to develop sibling-like bonds.
- Alice's parents realize that she mimics their behaviors, so they decide to stop involving in inappropriate things for Alice's age to be proper role models for her.
- Played for Drama: Alice spent much of her life as an only child, then her parents get divorced and get new partners with kids of their own, and have children with their new partners. Alice abruptly finds herself surrounded by stepsiblings and half-siblings, and struggles to cope with this living situation.
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