BIRTH ORDER
BEYOND THE BOOKS is a weekly meme where KissinBlueKaren throws out a topic (mostly non-bookish), and we blog about it.
As I was thinking about this post I came to realize why I might have such mixed up personality traits.
I was the only child for my parents, but my three older cousins lived downstairs, and my aunt daycared me, so I was more like the BABY of the family until I was six.
But when my parents divorced, I was whisked away to the countryside and was very much an ONLY child.
Ouch! Ha ha. Only child traits also included spoiled and selfish, but I was the "redheaded stepchild" and very much treated as second class citizen. When my stepbrother moved in when I was thirteen it became even worse. It was like the evil stepfather and the wicked stepbrother, so there was no spoiling or selfishness going on there.
I was sixteen the year my stepbrother moved out after his high school graduation and my half sister was born. So I was then playing the role of the OLDER child.
But here's the rub. After putting this post together I think personality traits have much more to do with family dynamics than birth order. I think it plays some role, but not as much as some people think. I was a perfectionist and an organization freak from preschooler on while I was the baby, not after I became an older sister. And I have always been nurturing, too. I was responsible early on because my mother basically ignored me and I was responsible for taking care of myself. I don't think I have ever been much of a show off, but I will admit to being ridgid (set in your ways) because of not having to live with children close to my age. I am comfortable leading, following, or working independently; is that from being in three different birth order positions? I don't know. I will say that my son exhibits more of the traits of an only child than I do, and my one nephew could be the poster child for middle child syndrome, though. Ha ha.
What is your birth order placement? Do you have any of the associated traits?