Oldest? Youngest? Birth order can have lifelong impact

Where do you fall in the birth order in your family? Are you the oldest, youngest or middle child? Maybe you’re an only child.

Birth order and how it impacts a person’s perspective, choices and behaviors is quite interesting. These theories don’t hold true for everyone, but they do for many.

If you were the oldest child, you may be quite responsible and conscientious. Perhaps you cared for your younger siblings.

Some even jest that they also helped raise their parents. The oldest child is often a pioneer. The negative for oldest children is often that they felt saddled with too much responsibility. They didn’t have space to be a kid and care for themselves, much less have others caring for them.

If you were a middle child, you may have ended up being the mediator, trying to keep peace in the household. People who grew up in this position often report feeling lost and the need to prove themselves to others.

They feel that either their older or younger siblings got more attention than they did. They often don’t know exactly how they’re supposed to fit in.

If you were the youngest child, you may have been called spoiled or your parent’s favorite. Usually, parents are a bit more mature now. They’re grounded in this adult thing and able to extend more care to this child.

They also often realize that this is their last child, so they may tend to dote on them to prolong the sweetness of parenting.

Finally, if you were an only child, you may have had a variety of the above experiences. Many only children report feeling more like the eldest or the youngest. They often convey feelings of loneliness and independence.

As with any position in the birth order, it can be a positive or negative experience.

Perhaps understanding a bit more about how this affected you will support you now as an adult in self-awareness as well as playing to your strengths.