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Birth Order as an Ideological Construct


            Adler's birth order theory is very practical and useful. Alfred "Adler believed that parents' responses to their children were affected by the order of each child's birth into the family" "(Birth Order 2003). The difference in treatment is said to influence the child's developing personality. Children tend to behave differently based off of where they are at in the birth order. This is a very useful theory because it can help assess the personality and behaves of that child. It can always help with understand why they act a certain way and how to deal with it. I have noticed this within my own family and my friend's families. I know many families with one child, and families with five boys, and families that have two girls and three boys.
             Parenting plays a huge roll in how the children behave. According to Adler, the only child is considered to be very spoiled and retains 200% of the attention from both parents. The oldest child is said to have very high expectations set upon them because they are expected to set an example for the younger siblings. The second child has a pacemaker, the older sibling, and the second child also try's to compete with the oldest because they feel they are always being beat by the oldest. The middle child tends to feel sandwiched and struggles finding a place to fit in because they don't feel significant to the family. The youngest child is mothered and fathered by the older siblings as well as the parents. The youngest child also stays the baby and tends to get his or her way.
             My parents got divorced when I was four years old; I had one other sibling at the time, my seven-year-old sister Ciara. For a while I was the baby to both my parents. Then my dad got remarried and they had two boys. I became one of the older kids of my dads, but at my moms I was still the baby. About 8 years later my mom got remarried to a man that had two daughters both younger than my sister and I.


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