birth order

[Jezebel]

What was your birth order and how much of an impact do you think it has on personality? How do you think it affected you personally?

I was an only child and while I wouldn't go as far as to say that I think my enviroment made me have the INTP preferences, I think it did reinforce the preferences.

I'm so used to having my own space. I never had to share my room when I was growing up. I think as a result I got so used to having privacy and doing things for myself, that it hasn't been an easy adjustment when I had to change. I tried sharing a dorm room in college but I couldn't focus on my work at all. My roommate was a quiet japanese girl who was very polite and studious, but her very presence in the same room got to me so much that I couldn't concentrate on anything else. It bothers me and makes me paranoid if most other people are in the same room while I'm doing things I normally do for fun, even if they aren't watching me.

I was left at home alone a lot to entertain myself, and I spent a lot of time doing things "in my head". Playing with my toys and making up stories for them, I loved to read (I don't know how old I was when I learned, but I know I could already do it before I started school), drawing and coloring, making things, collecting stuff, and countless other introverted activities. I did have friends I would play with outside, but I only saw them a few hours during the day.

I could even say that it might have strengthened my T preference, since I was more used to dealing with entertaining myself in more rational ways than worrying about how other people around me felt. Not that Ts are necessarily more socially challenged or that isolation causes that preference, but I do think that such a situation can aid someone who already has the T preference in not having to deal with the F as much and develop it more.

[Jezebel]

I forgot to add this option: last born (of 4+)

Looks like I can't edit polls. I would be eternally grateful if a mod could fix that and delete this waste of a post. PLEASE?

[Crazy]

I was 3rd of four. My older brothers are 7 and 8 years older, my younger brother is 3 years younger. I spent alot of time by myself in my room, (got in trouble alot, and just prefered to be in there building things with legos) and my brothers didn't hang out with me much. My little brother looked up to me, but was much more extroverted. I was able to be a "mamma's boy" most of the time because my dad worked nights and slept during the day. That also made it so I had to be quiet all the time, which is a contributing factor to why I am so soft spoken now. I had friends and played outside, but they were always coming over to my house or calling me up to play, interupting my alone time.

[int]

2nd of four. I older sister, 1 youger sister. The youngest is my brother.

I shared a room with my brother until I was 15 - but I still spent a lot of time alone, making model airplanes and such. Legos. Man I loved Legos. Especially the space ones...I used to build spaceships and bases all the time.

I didn't start reading a lot until after high school - I spent most of my time listening to music instead.

My older sister can't be stopped - she'll talk for all of us. It may make me more I and P. I don't really know.

[nobarcode]

First born of two from the first marraige. My first brother was born with learning disabilities (retarded-for the politically unconcerned such as myself) and my parents divorced when I was 4. In some sense, I was an only child, but then this, that and the other happend...I'll stop there.

[Google Monster]

Last born of five. I have two brothers and two sisters. Started spoiled and tempered until around grade four. Then i learned to supress my anger and become more quiet. Now i don't get angry at all no matter how much someones tries. Rooms i shared with my brother who is ten months older then me.
I was a show off in school but i always open up when i get comfortable with the group which takes weeks and in school our classes are small because our school is a reserve school for Mi'kmaq students only. Some reason I've always felt like an outcast even in the outcast group I hang around with.

[sme_bro]

1st born in my family, but my father had 5 children before me(my mum did not know this) although ive never met them (or so i think) or him.
2 sisters with my step-dad she married when i was 4, one of them has add and due to a brain hemorage at birth(which was very premature) she is many years behind what she should be and a HUGE handfull...i wonder that my mother manages.
the otherwas also prem but she has grown up fine.
they are both still young and we worry about jamies future...but i think she would do ok in modeling.
as for affecting me i think growing up with only a mum (and extended family) made me very introvert and clingy to her.
but since then living away from home at bording school from the age of 12 has made me a whole lot more confident and a better person than i belive i would have been otherwise.

[nobarcode]

I forgot to add this option: last born (of 4+)

Looks like I can't edit polls. I would be eternally grateful if a mod could fix that and delete this waste of a post. PLEASE?


Wait. This is turning out to be a most interesting thread. B)

[Avengardh]

Frist of two. And only two.

Dunno...my parents are ENTPs and they made sure we got the same love-share. However, I found myself always taking care of and protecting my younger brother. He was attached to me a lot since we were kids, he still kinda is.

I have always felt like I have "duties" I must fulfill as the first one, and have always been given more responsibility since I was young, which in turn I think that it helped my maturity, I am pretty mature compared to most people my age.

Which I guess is why other people come to me for counsel...all the time...

I do wish I had an older brother, dunno why.

~*Aven*~

[CosmicDust]

Middle of 3, all of us quite close in age. I was closer to my older sister than my younger sister agewise, but I clicked more with my younger sister 'cause she's an N while my older sister is S. I don't think it had particularly much to do with my personality development...I think I was the least aggressive because that's just my nature, not 'cause I had two stubborn sisters to contend with.

[BritainOphira]

I'm really not sure what my "birth order" would be. I have a half brother (who was adopted and is also 14 years older than I am), and a younger sister (who is only 15 months younger than myself). Growing up I had very little alone time because I had to share a rather small bedroom with my sister, who had little or no imagination, which still irks me to this day. I also read constantly (or, before I learned how, memorized my favorite books and acted as though reading them to freak out the aforementioned bro).
I think a lot of my introversion could be blamed on all the speech problems I had (couldn't say L's, R's, F's, Th's, Ch's, Sh's, or any other softer sounds), and also the fact that I exhibited moderate o.c.d. behavior which my mother thought could be corrected by screaming at me and threatening to ship me off some place.

[libertarianjim]

Oldest of 4 with 3 younger sisters (SP, SJ, and SP).

[Sam172]

Last born of 2. I have an older brother who is not like me at all :).
Though in saying that we generally leave each other alone and as such his personality doesn't annoy me :)

[Jezebel]

I forgot to add this option: last born (of 4+)

Looks like I can't edit polls. I would be eternally grateful if a mod could fix that and delete this waste of a post. PLEASE?


Wait. This is turning out to be a most interesting thread. B)

I meant the post where I requested the addition to the poll, because if someone actually WOULD edit the poll (*AHEM*), then the post where I requested it wouldn't need to be there.

[Johnny]

I'll take that response, Jezebel, as endorsement that this thread continue.

I'm a twin, and we're both the youngest of 4 children.

[Birdsnest]

I'm the first born of two girls, and the only introvert in my whole family.

[ohnoaninfp]

I am the middle child of three. It sucks because I don't look anything like my brother and sister.

[Jezebel]

I am the middle child of three. It sucks because I don't look anything like my brother and sister.

what's wrong with not looking like them?

[shaytana]

I am either an only child, the first of two, the third of four or the fouth of six ... depending on how you look at it.

My mother had a baby when she was 16 and put him up for adoption, never met him
Then she got married and had two kids, my older brother and sister.
Then she divorced him and he was never seen again, the kids were just babies.
7 years later she married my father and had me then my younger bro 3.5 years later.
They divorced when I was 5 or 6.
All hell broke loose and a year later it was just me and my mom living together until I moved out at 17. In that time my father had another kid by his girlfriend who left him while she was pregnant, I have only met him once when he was about a year old.

We can even say that I am 4th of 8 if you want to count my two step brothers from my mothers third and current marriage. And if my dad marries his current girlfriend it will be 5th of 10.

[HairlessBluetick]

I am the second, with one older sister.

[Jezebel]

I am either an only child, the first of two, the third of four or the fouth of six ... depending on how you look at it.

My mother had a baby when she was 16 and put him up for adoption, never met him
Then she got married and had two kids, my older brother and sister.
Then she divorced him and he was never seen again, the kids were just babies.
7 years later she married my father and had me then my younger bro 3.5 years later.
They divorced when I was 5 or 6.
All hell broke loose and a year later it was just me and my mom living together until I moved out at 17. In that time my father had another kid by his girlfriend who left him while she was pregnant, I have only met him once when he was about a year old.

We can even say that I am 4th of 8 if you want to count my two step brothers from my mothers third and current marriage. And if my dad marries his current girlfriend it will be 5th of 10.

For myself, I was only counting who I grew up and lived with during my childhood. I have a half brother and sister that don't live with me. If they were counted, I would be the oldest of three. But since I don't remember ever living with them, I consider myself an only child.

[shaytana]

For myself, I was only counting who I grew up and lived with during my childhood. I have a half brother and sister that don't live with me. If they were counted, I would be the oldest of three. But since I don't remember ever living with them, I consider myself an only child.

yeah, that is why the first thing I said was only child because it was just me and my mom since I was about 7 when I got out of foster care. But I am close to my siblings, especially my little brother (the only full blood sibling) so it does not really matter to me that we only lived together for a few years when we were very young, they are still my siblings.

[Slider]

oldest of three. definitely not the prototypical oldest child though, that title would go to my esfj 3w2 sister. I'm the only one with 'I' or 'N' in my immediate family. I get along best with my bro (the youngest), who's the only other P. I think he's esxp, 6w7 or 7w6.

[Birnam]

This *is* a most fascinating thread :)

I'm the second of four (or six). I have an older brother who is a year and a couple months older than me. He is, *I think* an ISTJ. When we were young, we hated each other (almost :) ). But then, during the summer of 3rd grade, we realized how much we had in common- and after the residual sibling rivalry wore off we became inseparable. I also have two younger brothers- six and seven [ESFP] years younger than me.

I was always a good reader, and partly because my older brother wasn't, I read almost constantly ... In fact, I can attribute almost every one of my achievements to trying to be better than my brother. :D he [i]still beats me at computer games.