Dad K (2nd of 3), Mom K (7th of 7 ... but it's confusing), Me (1st of 2), Scott (1st of ?), Luke (1st of 6), Mom W (3rd of 3), Dad W (4th of 4)Luke and I kind of feel/worry that we'll tend to side with Scott in sibling battles because he's the oldest and we GET how it feels to be the oldest.* This means that we plan on making the little siblings "wait their turn" for things as much as possible. (You can make the younger ones wait to, say, have their first sleepover or go to their first movie, but can't exclude them from big family outings just because #1 didn't get to see a theme park until they were 5.) We like the idea of setting up rights of passage for kids, like our parents did. I remember getting my ears pierced was a BIG DEAL.
As the oldest, we also feel a little jealous of how cool our younger siblings always were. Their social skills were so much more developed at much younger ages.
Do you think birth order has affected you? How? And do you gravitate towards close friends/partners that have the same birth order?
*A side story about parents picking sides based on birth order: When I was 16, I decided my sister's room was better than mine and I wanted to switch. She was 14 and did not want to trade. My dad told her she had to because I was the oldest (and going to move out soon and then she could have whatever room she wanted). CAN YOU BELIEVE IT? I still can't. Neither can she. It was awesome.
3 comments:
I can't believe he let you switch rooms....that's AWESOME!!! Sorry Karen!!!!! I'm an oldest and married an oldest - I definitely think it works in our favor and definitely see our sibling-order-traits come out sometimes!!!!! I never thought about it affecting how we parent......GREAT food for thought!!
I feel like an oldest child, even though I'm not, because I was the oldest girl, but I don't have as much of the first-child trauma that comes from being a guinea pig for parents, so I feel like I came out ahead in this one. Age order has definitely influenced my in-family interactions, in that I feel like I am in a position resolve conflicts and to give advice to the younger ones on things they come up against since I've had a few more years of living in which to figure stuff out. Luke, on the other hand, I feel like I could never catch up to in terms of accomplishment or information because he has been perpetually ahead of me for my whole life, so I have just accepted that as truth. Isn't that interesting? Otherwise, I don't know how much being the oldest has influenced my interactions with others. Probably it has. I mean everything does, right? But I haven't found that my friends are all of one birth order place or another, so who knows? Funny that my mom and dad are both youngests, though.
Hey! I sometimes come by your blog to see how things are going (and pick up recipes and ideas), saw this post and had to comment. I am the middle child of three (older sister and younger brother) and I am the middle child to a T. Middle children are stereotypically more collaborative, have very diverse interests, the "peacemaker", and easy going, but also get distracted easier and not as motivated as older and younger siblings. My brother and I were talking about birth order the other day and found that my sister and I fit our stereotypes, but him being the only boy has put him less as a youngest(though he didn't have a lot of the same rules we had) and giving him a mix of birth order traits.
To the second part of your question, of my friends I have a mix of all, but 3 of my 4 closest friends are also middle children. Interesting enough, I have not had any only children as friends until this year.
Birth order theory is one of my "diverse interests" if you couldn't tell...lol. It seems like everything is going well for you. I'm working out at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico doing rad engineering (a lot of air monitoring, ALARA review, and shielding, but hoping to move to dosimetry). I love the people, the town has taken some getting used to (see my blog). I was up in your part of the country visiting my brother who's interning in Mtn. View a few weeks ago and absolutely loved it. I had the best breakfast I've had in years at a place called Stack's in Menlo Park on our way to SanFran. Hope everything continues to go well!!! I love reading your blog :-).
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