Birth Order Dynamics

Baby will be turning one in about a month's time. I have no idea what to buy him as a present. Clothes is a no no present for babies. Its soooo boring. A toy. Definitely a toy. But what? He has been playing with all his sister's toys? Must get him his own toy. Just for him. (*makes mental note* and must keep toddler away from his new toy.)

Baby is No.2 (oh definitely not in terms of affection) but merely No.2 in sibling hierachy. No2. grows up with hand-me down clothes and toys and with a ready-made playmate to compete with. (Talking about hand-me down clothes, once Mr MG asked me how come baby was wearing pink pyjamas. :PpP )

No1 on the other hand usually IMHO is a little bossy and a natural leader. Toddler is showing signs of these now. She will say "Come, come baby, I show you how!"

I am the youngest in the family. What does that make me? Spoilt, pampered and manja queen. Hehe. Incidentally Mr MG is also the youngest. So I pamper him, he pamper me loh. (though he's hardly pampered in his family.)

I am the last out of 5. My eldest sis is 8 years my senior and my second last brother is 4 years my senior. So the 4 of my siblings are squeezed into 4 years gap and then along comes MG after 4 years. Quite clearly an accident! But that makes me a little bit of an 'outsider'. Too young to join in the fun and games. No one bothered to 'listen' to me talk. So I became taciturn. Very quiet. As a youngest child, I also had to measure up to expectations. I remember a teacher telling me "Your eldest sister is so good in Art and your middle sister is quite good too but how come your work is like that?" (Ah... stupid teacher, kill a child's self esteem with such a remark!)

I think what determines a person's character is partly influenced by his/her position in the family, whether eldest, middle or youngest child. Check out some of these sites for an interesting read on birth order.

Birth Order
Adlerian Overview of Birth Order Characteristics
Are first born's more successful?