Seb is such as calm, pleasant and contented little baby, he follows with warm and shining eyes any adult in his vicinity, and to give him attention is to recieve a huge smile of afirmation. It is as if any attention he has is a bonus, as he grows up in the shadow of his older brother. It makes you think about 'number two' child and the differences with 'number one'.
Though my father maintains that according to psychology, only being first born has any predictive power in life outcomes. Nevertheless, at the dinner table, birth order is a recurrent theme, and not solely due to positions taken out of vested interests (number twos are so stable and well adjusted), regardless of who is at dinner, the subject never fails to generate enthusiasm. I'm sometimes struck that there seem to be no special words in English for second or third born; perhaps there are.
3 comments:
It's very absorbing, isn't it, wondering things about our children. Cosette is like Sebastian - SO appreciative of attention. When I remember childhood, you're always there, somewhere in the picture, Tom, which is lovely! Eddie is the only firstborn in your family, Cosette the only secondborn in our family and I am the only firstborn, Seren the only fourthborn and Sam the only fifthborn in our family of origin. I wonder whether having a similarly-birth-ordered person with whom to empathise makes a difference in family dynamics?
Love,
Megs
Tom, you were the 1st born son, which must make a bit of a diference
andrew katay used to say the first born has initiative, the ones in between are insecure and the youngest turns out wild (he was a first born i think, if i rememeber correctly...how convenient)
as a 3rd of 4 i disagreed with him and had my own theory that the eldest was the least balanced - they were lacking in confidence, and the next ones were just more and more confident until the last who was the 'baby'
not sure what i think now
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