What exactly is Birth Order?
Many people have heard the term “birth order” without understanding fully what it means, so let’s start with a basic definition. Birth order refers to the position in the family that a child occupies at the time he or she is born. A child can be the oldest, the middle, the youngest or anywhere in between. Of course, the possibilities are endless, but in general, the most frequently studied birth positions are oldest, middle and youngest. These are the most common because a great percentage of parents have two or three children. This does not mean that being an only child, or being from a larger family doesn’t matter, of course it does! In fact, interestingly, many first-born children have similar personalities to only children (probably because they are both ‘only’ for a time.) Furthermore, youngest children often have predictable personality traits no matter how many older siblings they have. However, it is true that in much larger families, birth order issues can become more complex
