Birth Order

What issues do you care most about? What topics do you find yourself discussing most passionately, whether online, at the dinner table, in the classroom or with your friends? Birth order is rather significant in different cultures all over the world. In some cultures the most preferred position – was and still is the position of the eldest child. Some cultures consider the youngest child to be the dominant one. It goes without saying that the birth order has a lot to do with the further social status of the newborn. The reasons of this social status within and outside the family have a lot of premises. Different positions of birth order create certain differences between children belonging to this or that position. These differences altogether
explain why siblings are not alike. The term “siblings” is used to identify children that were born from the same parents or in other words children who are brothers and sisters. The widely spread word-combination “sibling rivalry” may be interpreted as a phenomenon caused directly by the birth
Each child in his development imitates certain models of behavior. The first-born will imitate grown-ups, as his significant close persons but, they are participants of his social interactions. The second child gets an opportunity to choose whom to imitate. This is primarily due to the fact that the eldest children in the family often actively take part in the process of bringing up younger children so can also become a model. These birth order positions do not simply separate brothers and sisters according to their year of birth, but predict the further lifestyles of these siblings.
The first child converts the marriage of two people into a real family.
Ordinarily, the parents are young and rather inexperienced and sometimes even not ready for the child. Parents try to dedicate all their free time to their child and to apply as many educational techniques as it is possible, nevertheless these techniques often contradict each other and it may result is the constant anxiety of the child. First-borns are very often over-protected, as their parents make the majority of decisions for them. These children are very parent-oriented; they want to meet expectations of their parents and behave as “small adults”. A situation of the first-born and only children is when they are in the center of attention of the adults. As a result they are very confident and organized. They are constantly in a need for parental and social approval and do everything possible to avoid “problematic” situations. The eldest child easily takes responsibility. The only child has a problem sharing anything within his or he
friends.
Some children remain the only ones for their whole life, put some of them at a point turn into the eldest child. This position changes some characteristics, because the birth of another sibling causes trauma for the first-born. The child does not understand why parents do not pay as much attention at him as they used to do before. Being the first to be born he feels he has the right to have all their attention. First-borns are very determined and become true leaders, as they need to prove the adults that they are the best and the “first place” is still after them. The eldest child is more likely to follow the family traditions and it more conservative. If it is a boy, they may inherit their father’s professions.

The middle child in the begging of his life is the second child in the family. For this child there is always somebody ahead of him. The major goal of the second-born is to overtake the first-born. It is obvious that this type of siblings may have problems with self-determination due to the fact that they are at the same time the older and the younger child. Middle children combine the qualities of the eldest and the youngest child in the family. These children often have troubles finding their true place, because adults forget about them, paying special attention to the eldest child (the smart one) and to the youngest child (the helpless one). The last-born child is carefree, optimistic and ready to taken someone’s protection, care and support. Very often he remains a baby for his family. He does not have to meet the high parental expectations, which the eldest child experiences, because the parents become less demanding to the child’s achievements. He has a lot of people to support him: his parents and his elder brothers or sisters. This exceeding support often spoils this sibling. He needs either to pretend to be a “baby” his whole life, or find a way to overtake the other siblings

Each child in any family want to ensure his individuality, occupy his own place, a place that is designed for him only.
The birth order does psychologically influence the child. This topic is wide but it all claims the importance of the birth order. I think that the desire to be unique is the major leading force for children in the family. So parent would be more democratic and let the children be successful in different fields so they do not compete. It goes without saying that these birth orders are not fatal, but only point out some trends of development of the children depending on their order of birth. Knowing these facts will help adults to avoid a lot of undesirable consequences to which the mentioned above roles of the children in the family may
lead.