The Myth Of Birth Orders and Personality

Does birth order really influence personal traits? Many researchers believe that the first-born child is parental, responsible, hardworking and intelligent. The middle-born child is more competitive, tends to be a people-pleaser and usually hates quarrel. Youngest are social, less capable of doing things. But I have found different traits comparing to researchers findings. Defining ones personality through their birth order can be a lot like horoscopes. Horoscopes are so sweeping that they can apply to anyone. The same can go for birth order. While I do have many of the traits first-borns are said to have, I also have a lot of the characteristics that the youngest have. The author in the passage tried to give logical reasons to prove it, but I saw many examples in real life which has no connection with the author’s logic. Let me share some of those relating with the author’s logic.

The firstborn child is not parental at all. In many families we can see that the younger brother’s are dominating the older sister. For example, one of my friends, Shanila, likes to talk with her friends at night. Most of the times her parents stay outside home so there is suppose to be no one to stop her. But she faces many troubles for her younger brother, Akash. He always tries to be parental and take care of Shanila by scolding her if she talks too much in phone. Sometimes Akash read SMS in her mobile and take numbers from her mobile to call and check the guy with whom she was talking the whole night. Sometimes younger brother also helps older ones with academic problems. Shanila is not a good student neither she have any interest with her study. She always faces problems with her assignments. So most of the time her brother force her like a parent to study. Therefore, I think it is the situation and parents influence which makes a people parental. Shanila’s parents give full right to Akash to take care of Shanila because her parents think boys are more capable than girls. So if any younger brother falls in a situation where he needs to be parental it can force him to be parental.

The firstborn children are more social. I have seen in absence of parents in the house the oldest child communicate with different neighbor for various reasons. For instance, when Rajiv’s parents stay outside home Rajiv serve the guests who come to their home.