The concept of Birth Order

As the youngest child, I always felt like I needed to catch up with my oldest brother in everything. It felt like almost every minute I would hear: "Rodney got all A's in this class, Rodney never had problems with this subject; Rodney always behaved well, etc." I'd never hear the end of it. I always felt pressure to do better than him in almost everything.

So I stumbled upon an article called "Birth Order: Fun to Debate, but how Important"  which grabbed my interest as soon as my eyes hit screen. It discussed the issue of birth order in families. It was about the differences between the second child and the first child in a family in relation to birth order. Parents who have a second child normally want to make sure they don't repeat the same mistakes they made with their first child. They also try to make sure they do the same things right and try to improve on being a parent. I feel like with my own parents they tried to be more liberal and weren't as strict on me as they were with my brother. The article also stated how younger siblings also try to play catch up with their elders. I can relate to this notion because my family was always hard on me about my grades and behavior because they wanted me to be just like my brother or even better than he was. It makes me question whether parents are trying to create a line of successful achievements with each child; the younger the child, the more successful they'll be or the more children they have, the more chances they'll have to make the next child better. The article also brought up the idea that younger children usually start to talk later than their elder siblings. I actually started talking when I was three years old. My mother told me that my doctor thought I would never learn. Yet, my brother helped me with my speech like the older sisters stated in the article. Then one day I was able to talk (I've been doing really well for myself actually.) It makes me question if doctors really know what they're doing when they diagnose someone or if they just want to make a quick diagnosis and make their money. But maybe I'll save that idea for another blog.

This article made me understand a lot of things about myself and about my brother. It also highlighted a lot of ideas about the issue of birth order. Truly, everyone does take it personal when it comes to birth order. It raised many questions which will help all those misunderstood older, middle and younger children understand a little bit more who they are. It helped me. =).