English Audio Request

How birth order influences
your personality
Nowadays, it is an accepted fact that our position in the family-
that is, whether we're an oldest child, a middle child, a youngest
child, or an only child - is possibly the strongest influence there is
on our character and personality. So what influence does it have?
The oldest child
Firstborn children often have to look after their younger brothers
and sisters, so they're usually sensible and responsible as adults
They also tend to be ambitious and they make good leaders. On
the negative side, oldest children can be insecure and anxious.
This is because when the second child was born, they lost some of their parents' attention, and maybe they feel rejected.
The middle child
Middle children are more relaxed than the oldest children,
probably because their parents were more relaxed themselves
by the time the second child arrived. They're usually very sociable - the kind
of people who get along with everybody. They are also usually
sensitive to what other people need because they grew up between older and younger brothers
and sisters. For the same
reason, they're often good at dealing with arguments, and they're
always sympathetic to the ones on the losing side, or in general,
to people who are having problems. On the other hand, middle
children can sometimes be unambitious, and they can lack
direction in life.
The youngest child
Youngest children are often very outgoing and charming. This
is the way they try to get the attention of both their parents and
their older brothers and sisters. They are often more rebellious,
and this is probably because it's easier for them to break the rules -- by the time
they were born, their parents were more relaxed
about discipline. They can also be immature and
disorganized, and they often depend too much on other people,
because they have always been the baby of the family.
The only child
Only children usually do very well at school because they have
a lot of contact with adults. They get a lot of love and attention
from their parents, so they're typically self-confident. They're also
independent because they spend so much time by themselves
And because they spend a lot of time with adults, they're often very organized. Only children can
sometimes be spoiled because they are given everything they ask for by their parents. They can also
be very selfish and get impatient, especially when things go wrong.
This is because they've never had to deal with problems
with other brothers and sisters.