on birth order - part 1

Does birth order really matter?

Totally.

Whenever anyone asks me whether I have siblings, I always shoot back at them "what do you think I have?"

In fact, before you read further, please do take a guess. If you feel so inclined to share, let me know. I've been taking data over the years and it's a pretty interesting way to assess how people view your personality.

So we had a birthday dinner for Syd on Saturday night. She's 3 now, her older sister is 7, and in about a month she'll have a younger brother. A brother that she definitely didn't ask for. When my cousin was pregnant with Syd, they didn't really have this issue with Sammy because she wanted a baby sister. (In fact, she wanted to name her "Tolula") When Alex (her cousin) came along and suddenly became the center of attention, Syd did NOT take it well. She still doesn't. But like it or not, she's headed into middle-child-hood. As the middle and the repeat...attention looks to be scarce. Poor kid...

So at her birthday, it was really cute watching her open presents. The presents she liked best were the ones that were versions of things her sister has. Her eyes would light up and she'd squeal "Just like un-nee!"

So do younger siblings always want to emulate older siblings? To me, it seems to be an issue of attention. On the one hand, youngers have the cute factor and the novelty factor on their side...but then the olders always get to do everything first and therefore have more accomplishments to draw attention to themselves. Who ends up getting more attention?