Birth order differences: Not only on my mind

I have always thought that being an outcast in my house was my parents’ fault. Everything was based on their preferences. They preferred their oldest son, because he was the first born child, the youngest, because he was always seen as a baby, and I was the middle forgotten child. When I was a teenager, I used to have many arguments with my older brother. My younger brother on the contrary, was all the time trying to do exactly the same as the eldest and me. The three of us used to complain about being treated differently. The oldest would argue that my parents’ were too strict with him, I would argue that they did not let me go out with my friends as much as my older brother, and the youngest would say that he never wore new clothes as much as his siblings. Since ancestral times, sibling relationships have been marked by human idiosyncracy. These differences were originally attributed to a simple matter of preferences on behalf of parents. However, due to thorough research, it has been discovered that birth order is a crutial factor in each person’s possibilities to stand out.
There are many examples in history which show the contrast between first-born children and their succeeding siblings. We could name Teddy and Elliot Roosevelt, the former being a well-known writer and president of the United States of America, and the latter dying of alcoholism without anything important to be remembered for. Of course, this was not the only case. There were Richard and Donald Nixon, Bill and Roger Clinton, and George and Neil Bush. Being the younger brothers in the preceeding samples charged with a variety of crimes.
A group of Norwegian researchers, released a study which shows that firstborns are generally smarter than their siblings, enjoying on average a three-point IQ advantage over the next eldest. The second child, in turn, is a point ahead of the third. Sometimes I feel that this is true. My Older brother seems to be smarter than me in some aspects, but I am definitely smarter than my younger brother in some others. Anyway, even when this has been cientifically proved, I have my doubts, because I am the only prospective proffessional among the three of us.
Studies in the Phillipines, show that later born siblings tend to be shorter, weight less and have less possibilities of being immunized. I have to argue again, because in my family, my younger brother is taller than me, and I am fatter than my older brother.
Even in nature these differences are substancial. That is the case of egrets, which lay many eggs but only raise with extreme carefulness the first two or three chicks. Moreover, orange trees carry about 100.000 pollinated blossoms, but only 500 will successfully become oranges. In nature, feelings are not involved as with human beings, that is why, everything is limited to the practicity of feeding the ones that have more possibilities to make it. This can be clearly seen with dogs, when the mother abandons the lastborn puppy, or, going to the extremes, even tries to kill it by herself if she believes that is too weak to go on living.
Parents provide more time, attention, and emotional nourishment to the firstborn. It is not a coincidence that family scrapbooks are usually stuffed with pictures and report cards of the firstborn (in my mother’s case, even hair and teeth), and successively fewer of the later-borns. This was proved in my family. While I was preparing a family slideshow last year, I found out that there was no evidence of my younger brother being a baby. What is more, there was not a single photo of him standing alone.
Siblings who want to stand out in a family, often do so by observing the elder child and doing exactly the opposite. There is some truth in it, however, children tend to be brightly selective in terms of imitation. They know that there are some aspects that have to be done in the same way as their older siblings, but some others which require urgent improvement to please the parents.
The birth-order effect is not indestructible. In 2005, investigators at the University of Birmingham in Britain conducted a research about abused children. In general, they found out that when only one child was abused, the scapegoat was usually the eldest.
To conclude, we have to agree that in sibling relationships we can find a strong sense of jealousy, that even when this is not consciously promoted by parents, in one way or another, they are the ones to be blamed for this. The firstborn child is likely to receive more attention until the next sibling appears. This follows the logic that after parents have a second child, the attention has to be undeniable splitted.

Name: Patricia Romano

Title: The Power of Birth Order
Date: Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2007
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1672715-1,00.html