One of These Things is Not Like The Other
August 19th 2008 03:06
My younger sister has been in town for the last week helping me move my parents into their new townhome. We have spent many hours unpacking memories and rearranging my parent's new life.
She was struck with how totally different we are. How we react so differently to the same stimuli. She ventured that may be this a result of good old fashion birth order calculation. No one would dispute that birth order has a significant impact on personality development. Wiki birth order info
Today I was reading this article Birth Order Matters to my sister over the phone today after a long discussion about how our raising was so different. Then we read this article Time article
My take:
Being the oldest means you do things first. You ride your bike first. You get your first kiss first. You go to high school first. You drive and go to prom and enroll in college first. You also fall off the bike first and get your heart broken first. You disappoint your parents first. You please them first. And they lessen or strengthen or lessen their grasp on your younger siblings based on all the things that you the oldest child, do first.
This is the role of oldest children. We test the waters first. And then we motion our younger siblings into the pool and watch from and hope they don’t drown and do our best to save than when they get in trouble and worm them when they are going too far into the deep end. Being the oldest child means you a trailblazer. You set the tone and raise the bar and only after you do things your younger sibling are able to do the same.
Her take:
Being the youngest means that you always do things last. Parents are less concerned when you fall off your bike. Parents have an expectation of success measured by the older sibling's sucess or failure. High school drama is poo pooed. Break up with boyfriends is met with ambivalence. Parents are always holding your feet to the fire so no mistakes will be made like the older sibling.
Parents are worn down. Parents don't take you seriously. Older siblings try to be "the boss!" You get tired of hearing "you're not big enough, strong enough, fast enough, old enough or smart enough to play with me." We are risk takers, adventurers, people who are constantly trying to find something that makes us stand out from the older sibling.
What do you guys think?
She was struck with how totally different we are. How we react so differently to the same stimuli. She ventured that may be this a result of good old fashion birth order calculation. No one would dispute that birth order has a significant impact on personality development. Wiki birth order info
Today I was reading this article Birth Order Matters to my sister over the phone today after a long discussion about how our raising was so different. Then we read this article Time article
My take:
Being the oldest means you do things first. You ride your bike first. You get your first kiss first. You go to high school first. You drive and go to prom and enroll in college first. You also fall off the bike first and get your heart broken first. You disappoint your parents first. You please them first. And they lessen or strengthen or lessen their grasp on your younger siblings based on all the things that you the oldest child, do first.
This is the role of oldest children. We test the waters first. And then we motion our younger siblings into the pool and watch from and hope they don’t drown and do our best to save than when they get in trouble and worm them when they are going too far into the deep end. Being the oldest child means you a trailblazer. You set the tone and raise the bar and only after you do things your younger sibling are able to do the same.
Her take:
Being the youngest means that you always do things last. Parents are less concerned when you fall off your bike. Parents have an expectation of success measured by the older sibling's sucess or failure. High school drama is poo pooed. Break up with boyfriends is met with ambivalence. Parents are always holding your feet to the fire so no mistakes will be made like the older sibling.
Parents are worn down. Parents don't take you seriously. Older siblings try to be "the boss!" You get tired of hearing "you're not big enough, strong enough, fast enough, old enough or smart enough to play with me." We are risk takers, adventurers, people who are constantly trying to find something that makes us stand out from the older sibling.
What do you guys think?
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Comment by Lilla
From The Home Front
Enviro Warrior
Dream Herald
Esoteric Bookshop
Hey I've done a fair bit of reading about this birth order stuff, and am amazed at how it transposes into relationships. For example the fact that a first born sibling will often marry a youngest sibling, with the middle sibblings being able to cut the mustard in either direction.
According to the RAED Esoteric birth order guff, marraiges where there is a healthy mix of oldest with youngest works really well and has less 'role' playing with either gender swapping roles more easily???
The research is not finished nor conclusive and I will come back with some links when I have more time...
Interesting article.
Lilla ...
Comment by Miswanderlust
Killer Beats
Ramble On
Hipnotherapy
Thanks for the hookup regarding the RAED info. Very itneresting reading btw. Thanks for stopping by and adding so much to my blog.
Mis