Sibling Order Stereotypes

Growing up in my family I was the first born of two children. For me this meant that I was the ultimate guinea pig for my parents, and therefore how I was raised was much different from how my younger brother was raised. I notice, now that I am older, there were many differences on the parenting techniques that were used to raise us both as individuals. Ultimately this caused my brother and I to be totally opposites. To this day I feel like birth order plays a large role in my family, and sometimes it is hard to watch my brother get of easy when I am living a more difficult life.

Since I am interested in birth order, and the differences between my brother and I, I chose to read an article entitled What Parents Learn From Experience: The First Child as a First Draft? Shawn D. Whiteman wrote this article, with corresponding research by Susan M. McHale, and Ann C. Crouter. This particular article explains the differences in parenting between two children within the same family that are about two years apart in age. The words describe what many parents learn the first time around with their first-born child, and how their parenting styles change with the second child. Parents tend to be more easy going with the second child, and therefore discipline is seen less towards the younger child compared to the older child. Also, this article explains that most parents are less worried about the older child when they are out of the house, compared to the younger child one. Younger children tend to be checked up on more then the older kids, but older children tend to have less opportunities then the younger ones do.

Growing up in my family my parents tended to be a little bit harder on me because I was the first-born, and the...

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... always perfect with us growing up. As a result, however, we both became two great kids and are constantly turning into even better adults. It is true that my brother is still the younger sibling and even at the age of 17 he is still receiving all the perks of being the baby. However, my parents are beginning to buckle down again, and crack down on his bad behavior around the home. As a result I see him getting in more trouble now then he did as a kid. Of course I do wonder if the trouble he is getting into now even impacts him because he has grown out of his formative years. I guess only time will tell.

Works Cited

Whiteman, Shawn D., Susan M. McHale, and Ann C. Crouter. "What Parents Learn from Experience: The First Child as a First Draft?" Journal of Marriage and Family 65.3 (2003): 608-21. ProQuest. Web. 7 Apr. 2014