Tuesday, September 8, 2009

"Birth Order-Fun to debate, but How Important?"

Being the eldest of my family I feel like I was put up to the challenge of setting a good example for my younger sister. However, my mistakes are taken more seriously then those of my hers. I think there is that necessary feeling of a younger sibling to look up to the oldest, but sometimes when the younger one outshines the oldest it is like the older one did something wrong.

Usually how it goes is the older one is "always the smarter one." In my family I personally thought that she(my little sister) was the smarter one. But then again, I bet she would think the opposite. I think parents have a lot to do with how their kids grow up and who they are as people, obviously everyone knows this. But what I didn't realize until after reading this article was that first time parents usually do things differently with each child. The first getting the most outrageous attention and elaborate gifts, because well simply it's their first born. They do different things with them teach them for the first time. When the second child comes along parents probably have this whole dejavu feeling and think it is second nature because they've already done it before. Like if you keep doing something or practicing something you will eventually become really good at it. So in a way the second child is getting jipped in the whole growing up process.

The other point of view though from my side would be, the second child gets a whole new experience on learning things. They will see first hand on what not to do because more than likely the older sibling will be getting in some type of trouble or making some type of mistake. They will take this and learn from it, I know my sister has and she tells me all the time that she looks up to me but it still puts a pressure on me having to always be well, not right, but living up to what she thinks I should be or how she pictures me to be. Basically she is living vicariously through me.

Having a younger sister has its high and low points. You get to watch them try to be like you, or tell you they look up to you. However, there will always be that nagging feeling of wanting to know what it would be like to have an older sister, so you can put the blame on them. Something I have a feeling ever older sibling hears throughout their lifetime will be, "But you let so and so do this why can't I?" I would love to say this, but unfortunetly never will.

1 comment:

  1. Sounds like having a younger sister has its pros and cons. (I have two daughters, four years apart, and they have had their disagreements over the years.) You picked an interesting article. I found some punctuation and grammatical errors. You should read through the post and see if you can spot them. Learning to edit your own copy is a valuable skill.

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