Edwin Miraflor - Tuesday, April 13, 2010
I’ve read some reviews about a book by Dr. Kevin Leman, called The Birth Order Book. It’s very interesting and here’s some food for thought. Did you know that approximately 80% of Harvard students are first borns or only children. One can argue that first borns cost so much to send to Harvard that parents run out of money for the rest of the children (:

According to Dr. Kevin Leman, author of The Birth Order Book, birth order matters. Here’s how his framework on how the different orders generally are, noting that not every characteristic applies to every child.

First Child: perfectionist, reliable, conscientious, a list maker, well organized, hard driving, a natural leader, critical, serious, scholarly, logical, doesn't like surprises, a techie.

Middle Child: mediator, compromising, diplomatic, avoids conflict, independent, loyal to peers, has many friends, a maverick, secretive, used to not having attention.

Youngest Child: manipulative, charming, blames others, attention seeker, tenacious, people person, natural salesperson, precocious, engaging, affectionate, loves surprises.

Only Child: little adult by age seven, very thorough, deliberate, high achiever, self-motivated, fearful, cautious, voracious reader, black-and-white thinker, talks in extremes, can't bear to fail, has very high expectations for self, more comfortable with people who are older or younger.

Interesting, isn't it? Well, is it accurate for you? Some of us can argue with some of this but it seems to have some truths. Check out his book at your local bookstore or Amazon.