Only child - lonely child?

Today, I will talk about a niggling issue that surfaces every now and then and after a little internal debate gets pushed to some deep inaccessible pocket of my brain till the next time and then it resurfaces again and the cycle repeats itself. Li'l A is an only child. While some parents have the luxury of planning and executing their plan to perfection with respect to children(number and spacing), we've not had the same luxury, mostly for circumstantial reasons. And in all honesty, we've had talks but have not yet decided on being an only-child family or if the decision is made for us by some higher authority, I don't know that yet. In any case, I was at peace with the fact that Li'l A was an only child or at least I thought so. For the most part he is a friendly, well adjusted kid and not the stereotypical only child aka "the spoiled and self indulgent monster". He is sensitive and caring and has a great sense of humor. As parents, both Uj and I do everything in our control to guard against "The little emperor syndrome" And there are certain definite advantages to being an only child as well. It is a known fact that only children have good language skills and a greater sense of responsibility primarily because of their increased interaction with adults (mom and dad). Li'l A is also a lot more mature than other 7 yr olds and I think that is a good thing. Yet, I worry.

As the parent of an only child I have to work that much harder to ensure that he develops the right kind of social skills. I find myself constantly wondering if school does enough to foster healthy social relationships and enhance social skills. We do play dates often and extracurricular activities sometimes but even then I wonder if it will make up for the lack of sibling interaction. The goal is to raise a compassionate and considerate human being who understands the meaning and value of compromising and sharing. And then there are other issues which all parents are faced with - how do you set boundaries, how much to criticize and correct (without getting in the way of their self-confidence), how to set expectations (of course, none of us want our kids to fail!) These and the unique characteristics of the child itself makes parenting an only child extremely challenging. And if we end up being an only child family, I would still want to embrace this journey wholeheartedly despite the challenges and raise my only child to be a happy, kind and intelligent young man!
A friend once remarked that we are very good parents. I hesitated before accepting the compliment. As parents, we are always second-guessing ourselves. And of course, parenting is our job and duty and we do it sincerely with no expectation of any reward or compliment. But if someone notices that at some level we are getting it right and compliments us - it is probably because we as parents are very transparent . Li'l A sees us for what we are and probably as a single child family, we relate to each other a little more closely than other families do and in that sense we are an extremely cohesive unit. So, maybe in the end it will be o.k..