First-borns and later-borns.

Are you first-born?

  • First-born

    Votes: 46 54.1%

  • Middle-born

    Votes: 12 14.1%

  • Last-born

    Votes: 21 24.7%

  • Only child

    Votes: 9 10.6%
  • Total voters
    85
  • Poll closed .
AuntPeggy

AuntPeggy

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This morning, in a TV interview Tom Wolfe mentioned all the first seven astronauts were first-born sons, white, protestants.

Later today, I came across this quotation from Art Linkletter. "Each generation has been an education for us in different ways. The first child-with-bloody-nose was rushed to the emergency room. The fifth child-with-bloody-nose was told to go to the yard immediately and stop bleeding on the carpet."

I'm a first-born. Are you, too? Are pilots mostly first-born?
 
I'm the baby of the family, Geezzz I always hated that label. Things were different for me then the older siblings, maybe they wore the folks out. I will say there was no easy road, I paid for and worked for everything I got and when I screwed up Mom usually gave me the smack I deserved.

A quick story....

My Mom and Dad gave my sister a 1971 Nova to drive for school, work whatever. When she bought a car I (young male with new license in 74) figured I would have wheels! Wrong! Dad said he would "sell" me the car and my argument that my sister had free wheels fell on deaf ears. He later told me that with my purchase came responsibility and asked if I noticed how good my car looked and ran compared to my friends. He said funny thing having to pay for tires and engine work you tend not to beat it. He was right again, as usual.
 
I'm a first born, a last born, and an only child.

I'm my mom's first born (and only child), and my father's last born. I was raised an only child of a single mom, and haven't met my siblings (only met my father for the first time three years ago), so I doubt that being the last born really makes much of a difference.

I definitely act like a first/only child, that I know.
 
I am the one and only. My mom still doesn't like the fact that her baby is doing something as dangerous as flying. And my wife is the first of the girls I've dated that she hasn't hated. My dad (an eldest), of course doesn't care, but I'd say my upbringing fits the stereotype.
 
Gary,

I always told my sister that Mom and Dad stopped when they were ahead.

Bob
 
Teller1900 said:
I am the one and only. My mom still doesn't like the fact that her baby is doing something as dangerous as flying. And my wife is the first of the girls I've dated that she hasn't hated. My dad (an eldest), of course doesn't care, but I'd say my upbringing fits the stereotype.
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I'm the second of two. While I'm sure my mom had concerns about my learning to fly, she kept them to herself (unusual for her) and actually encouraged me in my pursuit of flying. Of course it helped that she was one of the first women in Michigan to get her pilot's license.
 
AuntPeggy said:
I'm a first-born. Are you, too? Are pilots mostly first-born?
Click to expand...
There must be something to that first-born theory looking at the poll. Why do you think that might be?

I'm an only, and my mom, who was a single parent by that time, didn't offer much of an opinion about my flying lessons, at least not that I can recall.
 
I'm a first-born. Are you, too? Are pilots mostly first-born?[/quote]

I am indeed - and an only child as well. Lack of competition is a good thing.

Dave
 
According to research the fourth son is likely to be gay. I'm the 8th son so I guess I'm doubly happy, eh!

Youngest of 10 total. Nahhhhh, we're not Catholic.
 
Last born of seven... with an eleven year gap between my sister (next one up) and myself.

Some can't buy I grew up as a latch key child while still one of seven kids.
 
first of 4 that my dad had with 2 wives. ( 2 each). i still had to buy my own car and only got to go the hospital when i needed stitches or couldnt breathe.
 
I'm first-born, but Leslie's fourth of five girls. I didn't own a car until she and I bought one well after graduating from college. And she had to get her driver's license at that time, because she didn't have one!
 
I wonder how much deviation from "standard" family experience modifies the relevance of actual birth order. I was last but so far behind my two siblings (10+ and 12+ years) that I might have been more like a second first. Also, my father died when I was quite young so my mother had to work and I ended up more as an "only" being raised mainly by grandparents as the only child in the house.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
I'm a first born, a last born, and an only child.
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I sorta fall into all of those categories too.

I have an older sister and that would make me last born. But she moved away with her mom before I was born so while I am my dad's last born I am not my mom's. She had a boy before me with another husband and and a girl after me with my dad. So I am a middle child and an older brother, but neither one of those kids survived. So I guess I am an only child too.


FWIW my SO's family does not reflect the typical driven oldest sibling formula.
 
smigaldi said:
I sorta fall into all of those categories too.

I have an older sister and that would make me last born. But she moved away with her mom before I was born so while I am my dad's last born I am not my mom's. She had a boy before me with another husband and and a girl after me with my dad. So I am a middle child and an older brother, but neither one of those kids survived. So I guess I am an only child too.


FWIW my SO's family does not reflect the typical driven oldest sibling formula.
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This sounds like a logic puzzle.
 
Graueradler said:
I wonder how much deviation from "standard" family experience modifies the relevance of actual birth order. I was last but so far behind my two siblings (10+ and 12+ years) that I might have been more like a second first. Also, my father died when I was quite young so my mother had to work and I ended up more as an "only" being raised mainly by grandparents as the only child in the house.
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I'd say significant deviation. My ex's family was like this. She was the first born, and had a younger brother who's 10 years younger than she is. He definitely acts more like a first born than a last born, and they both act like only children.

I think 10 years is about the number for that, though. My mom and her brother are 7 years apart (my mom being the younger one), and she acts more like the baby in the family, although she does have some of the only child bits (MINE MINE MINE!!!). :)

Scott, I normally consider myself an only child, like you. That's how I was raised. My half sister didn't even know I existed until I was about 13, at which point she promptly didn't care.
 
smigaldi said:
I sorta fall into all of those categories too.

I have an older sister and that would make me last born. But she moved away with her mom before I was born so while I am my dad's last born I am not my mom's. She had a boy before me with another husband and and a girl after me with my dad. So I am a middle child and an older brother, but neither one of those kids survived. So I guess I am an only child too.


FWIW my SO's family does not reflect the typical driven oldest sibling formula.
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Dang, that almost fits in with this. :D
 
During the instructor pilot training course "charm school" at Simuflite, part of the curriculum involves this stuff. Each class has six-ten students. The session starts by a show of hands regarding a number of questions including first born, class standing, athletics, leadership (class officers, team captains, etc.) A high number of the class I attended answered most questions affirmatively, but since all of us were pilots who knows whether any of the answers were true.

The teacher then introduced a number of reference articles and studies (inlcuding the Astronaut study IIRC, that seem to support the pattern among pilots. Figuring out whether any statistical relationship exists is above my pay grade.
 
I'm the second and last (third, counting my half-brother), and I think I actually gained an edge by watching my brother go on ahead of me... he consistently made the wrong moves, and I learned what not to do, especially when it came to defying the old man. :D

My brother's 47 now, and still hasn't got his driver's license. My half-brother is 63, and was a radar tech in the USAF, but never got a hankering to fly for them, even though he had the opportunity to try it.

To me, the big challenges I've set before myself in life came from a drive to get over being the runt, etc... it's not always the ones who got the most nurturing, sometimes it's the ones from the bottom of the pile.
 
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There was a book written about this topic. I think it was called the "Birth Order Book - why you are the way you are". Interesting reading.
 
KennyFlys said:
Last born of seven... with an eleven year gap between my sister (next one up) and myself.
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So, Ken...

like me, you are an only child of a large family.

Psychologists say that if there is seven years or more between you and your siblings then you have an only child mentality. There's 8 years in my case.
So, we're last...and first...and only. But I couldn't check all three boxes in the poll!

:goofy:

Edit: I now see some of you are already discussing this!
 
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timwinters said:
So, we're last...and first...and only. But I couldn't check all three boxes in the poll!

:goofy:

Edit: I now see some of you are already discussing this!
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Actually, you could check every box. In my own perverse way, I decided to allow multiple choices. I notice that the 71 voters have cast a total of 74 votes.
 
Oldest of two. Easy to keep track of siblings that way. And Mom and Dad have been married for 60 years, so that's easy to track, too.
 
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