In Your Face, Younger Siblings!

Nobody ever thought Wally was cute and adorable.

A new study confirms what I, and my wife, have long believed true: first-born children have it tougher than the younger siblings.

Here are some highlights of the article:

Parents have an incentive to play tough with their kids, especially the older ones, to try to establish this signal to the other children that they’re not a pushover . . .

That stricter parenting style often shapes the firstborn kid into a play-by-the rules perfectionist, so parents tend to rely more on their oldest child than the younger kids . . .

I was put into my parents' officers corps at an early age. I learned to play by the rules. I learned to make rules and to follow them. I learned to lead, and I learned that leading comes with a heavy burden. Being older, more was expected of me at all times. I remember getting the infamous "You're older so you should know better" lecture repeatedly through childhood.

I witnessed all of this "evidence" firsthand as I watched my parents' parenting style change after I moved on to college. I saw my younger siblings' curfews wither away to nothing. I always had a strict curfew of midnight on Friday and Saturday, and my dad stayed up most of those nights to make sure I was there on time. There was even one New Year's Eve my sophomore year that my parents set my curfew at 11:00. I was at a party at a friend's house (with parents monitoring everything), and my parents still insisted that I leave the party at 11:00. All my friends got to ring in the New Year together, but not me. I got to sit around while my parents and their friends played cards. Was I Bitter? Yes. Am I still? Some.