Birth Order

Birth Order -

You see it as you grow up, in a house full of different personalities. I came to realize at a very young age that birth order could affect the personality of a person. And as I progressed into adult hood, the interactions between my household stood bold against my theory. At times its hard to believe the three of us came from the same parents let alone from the same species! However, to describe the peculiarities of birth order as my experience tells, siblings can fall neatly into three groups: The Perfectionist, The Tornado, and The Princess.

The Perfectionist is the oldest child. As in my family, miss Perfection has been the center of attention since the moment of conception. Photo albums are filled with every step to ever runny nose this kid has. If you are a first-born, you have a dominant personality, demanding perfection of everyone except yourself, and perfectly happy to delegate the dirty work while still managing to claim all the credit. First-borns are ruthless, imperious, quick-tempered, and perfectly suited for the monarchy or the position of Pope. The parents just know that this child would be the smartest, most compassionate, most beautiful child ever born on the face of the earth. The parents then pour all their energies into making sure this is true. The child then decides that this is what life is like. The oldest child believes that their hair has to always be perfect with a hair bow that is the exact shade of their carefully chosen ensemble. Their schoolwork reflects this also. They will be at the top of their class in everything from reading to hopscotch. They will also be involved in everything imaginable - drama, girl scouts, cheerleading, youth group, yearbook, honor societies, and the list goes on and on. These are the children you find in gifted classes and are bored if they don't get challenging enough homework. On top of everything else, things have to be perfect the first time. ....

The middle child is the Tornado. The middle child will happily announce why life is not fair and how they've been handed the short end of the straw. They will do this in a loud and very emotional way. No matter their age, they think they should be able to do everything their older and younger siblings do. And if they can't, "It's not fair!" is followed by an endless tirade about how they are not loved and how they are going to run away and find people who have no children so they can be an only child. Ten minutes later this same madman will be asking you to listen to a song they wrote about how much they love their siblings or calling you to come see the cute new thing their younger sibling is doing. This child can be very compassionate and loving but life is so unfair to them that they forget to show it or only show it when it suits them. This child constantly hears "Can't you be more like