These week we celebrated my baby sister’s birthday and with that, I thought I’d share a post discussing some of the stereotypes thrown around when it comes to siblings.  When I was reading more and more about the topic, I actually learned some things about personality traits and about your “birth order” that are pretty interesting too, so lets get to it! (Before we begin, if you don’t already know, I should let you know that I am the middle child in a family of 3 girls).

1. The oldest is the smartest, the youngest gets it easier, the middle child feels left out: SO, lets just start off with this banger. If either of my sisters are reading this, I think they’ll have to agree with me. I don’t believe the oldest is the smartest (I think I am, lol),just kidding. I believe we are all equally smart and have strengths and weaknesses in different areas (like everyone does). I could ace a test I’ve studied for all week, but could I cook up a dinner from scratch the way my oldest sister could? Do I have the street smarts that my younger sister naturally has? Not a chance. We’ve all had different life experiences that have contributed to our “smarts.” Being the middle child, honestly speaking, I’ve never once felt left out. Quite frankly, I feel like I was raised as if I was a little princess. (Thanks mom & dad 🙂 ) That thing about the younger sister getting it the easiest though, HELL TO THE YES. At least for our little family, 100000% TRUE. And Amilee, you cannot even deny that!
2. Sibling rivalry, the moment you’re not the only one, there is a competition for attention: I think when we were younger, my younger sister and I definitely fought and screamed and cried ALOT. I don’t always know if this was because we were competing for attention, but I’m sure some of it was. I guess I’d really have to ask my parents if we behaved a certain way when one of us was getting more attention than the other. From my point of view, at least looking back now, I think we were raised very closely so that we didn’t necessarily feel in competition with each other, but rather, had a feeling of accomplishment no matter which of us was “succeeding.”
3. First borns are pushed to perform & tend to be low risk takers, whereas second borns are more flexible: While there are situations where this may not be entirely true, I think this is pretty true for my younger sister and I. I hate anything remotely close to “taking a risk” and am very calculated and planned with everything I do. Amilee, on the other hand, is very “go with the flow” with every aspect of her life. Tomorrow is Easter, for example, and I’ve had an outfit picked out for a week. Amilee still doesn’t know what she’s going to wear.
4. A second born has a lot more friends than a first born and will typically reach outside the family and create their own circles: This is an interesting one. I do agree, Amilee does have a greater reach of friends than I do. But we also have a lot of the same friends because we’ve been so close our entire lives. I would say I’ve formed more deeper, longer lasting friendships than she has (though she still does have some), but she’s much more sociable than I am and can become friends with anyone, wherever she is. I on the other hand, am much more private and shy.
5. The first born is the more adult like of the bunch:  For us, absolutely. Again, I’m a big planner and  organizer. Amilee is much more spontaneous. So maybe this is because of our birth order?
6. The middle child is the social butterfly of the family. Couldn’t be more far off for us. Like I said earlier, I literally have social anxiety and hate talking to people I don’t know. My sisters however, are very social and can strike up a conversation with nearly anyone.

Well, what do you think? Are there any truths to these stereotypes for you guys? Let me know in the comments! & Happy Easter!!!

xoxo,

Amanda