Birth Order

I read the Birth Order book by Kevin Leman a few years ago. I really enjoyed it and found it hilarious that my brother, sister, and I are pretty much the poster group for his theories. I am pretty sure George was a small baby when I read it, so I was interested to see how he would fit into the "oldest" category as we had more children. Ethan came along 3 years and 4 months after George. They aren't incredibly close in age, so I wondered how their relationship and personalities would come about and how closely they would follow Dr. Leman's theories.   

Even though Ethan is the baby of our family for the moment, he has always seemed to favor the traits of a "middle."

He is extremely adventurous, a little on the wild side, a quick learner, and likes a lot of attention.

Here is the funny part (and my whole point of writing this post).

This week George has been in Vacation Bible School, so I figured I would do some fun summer things with just Ethan before it was the three of us for the rest of the summer.

On Monday I took him to a splash/water slide park in our area.

He went on each slide once, but then decided to sit attached to my side with his feet in the water for the rest of the time.

If George would have been with us it would have been a totally different story.

I wouldn't have seen him once.

Then on Wednesday we went to "Toddler Tales" at our local library.

Same story . . . he sat on my lap the entire hour and listened to the stories.

He didn't dance when they put on music . . . which is totally unlike him.

I knew it was because his brother wasn't there with him.

It just struck me how much of his personality traits are based on his brother.

George is the reason he feels like he can be adventerous and outgoing.

When he is alone it is literally like I am with a different kid.

I am no psychologist (obviously), but it is so interesting to see kids come out of their element when their environment changes.

I am not into putting my kids into a box and just labeling them this or that because of where they fall in the family line-up.

But . . . I also wonder how their order really does affect their relationships and personalities.

Food for thought.

Now go psycho-analyze your own children.

You are welcome.