Your child's place within the family

Children in families come in threes.  Whether you go on to have 4, 12 or 24 children they will take on certain roles:

1.    The First Child – will always ask questions before diving into any new experience.  They will need to understand exactly what is about to happen and will need clear instructions.  They tend to be the leaders.  They are our experiments in parenting.  They are also our born worriers, give them as little notice of change as possible – they will only worry for longer with more time.

2.    The Second Child – They will tend to be ‘followers’ and will certainly follow the first child’s lead.  They need lots of notice of change because they tend to be dragged around by the rest of the family.

3.    The Third Child – this is the ‘rebel’ of the family, not in a negative sense, but these children tend to break the mould by finding their own path.  They watch one and two arguing it out and go their own way.

*If you have the same sex these traits will be much more obvious.  Where you have a mix of sexes you will have a mix of traits (e.g. boy, girl, boy = 1, 1/2, 2). They are also more evident within the family setting, hence the reason that big, extended family gatherings can be stressful!