First Born

First born = china doll; Second child = rag doll
1st child Fred Bear, 2nd child Thread Bare
1st child swollows money you rush them to emergency, 2nd child does it, you wait for it to pass, 3rd child does it and you deduct if from their pocket money.

They're funny 'cause they're true. But, are they funnier to me because I am a first child?
My brother (obviously younger) have often talked about this. Most of his friends are second children and most of mine are firstborns. I focus on all the barriers I had to fight to break down and then he would just run across. He focuses on his lack of specialness. (not as a being, but he never did anything first). He too is close to my cousin who is a 2nd in a same sex family where I think birth order is probably more pronounced.

I never really worried too much about this really until now. We have such high expectations for Alexander, our 1st. We eagerly anticipated every milestone and these are etched in our memory. We are still eager for the twins, dont get me wrong they are difficult to forget, but we are happier to wait for them. We now know that they are babies for only such a short time that we are content to enjoy this time. So in that thought alone, Alexander has higher expectations to live up to and probably will take this on his whole life.

I know theory will be tested as we have two seconds, but is there anything I can do to stop or at least minimise the issue. I am very concious to try to make things fair and do the same for each individual child at the same age, but it is a constant challenge.

There is another saying that the first child is born to rule the world and the second is born to change it. I don't know if this is necessarily a bad thing, but in a house of boys it will be a challenge. I would love to hear if anyone has any suggestions?

PS - SOOOOO sorry. You must realise that there were only 2 kids in our family, hence me forgetting the middle child theories. This was not a targeted barb to those lucky middole children who are both an older and a younger sibling. (that should make em feel better- he he)