Child Development- 1st Period- Class #4

[slapbetcommish.livejournal.com]

"Morning, everyone," Lily greeted the students after the bell. "I'm sure everyone'll be glad to know that this week there are no crying babies, though I know you all loved and adored them. This week we're going to get a little more into the psychology of things by talking about birth order.

"Alfred Adler was the first person to really put forward the theory that your chronological place among your siblings would have a strong effect on your personality," she went on, passing out this week's handouts. "Which it probably can. I mean, if you're the firstborn and are like, seven years old before you get that little brother or sister you spent years asking Santa for, you're going to have some really different experiences than that sibling who's got an older brother or sister to deal with, especially if you suddenly figure out you really would have rathered Santa gave you a bike instead.

"It's also not an exact science. Like I've been saying about development, everyone's going to be unique. And sometimes there are extenuating circumstances. Now we have blended families. People have stepbrothers and stepsisters, half-siblings... Sometimes they might live with their dad while their siblings live with their mom. And then you have a long time between siblings sometimes. Some people will say that if you have one kid, and then your second ten years or more later, you might as well just lump them in with only children. It's all a fun socio-familial...thing." She paused. "Which is a word I think I just made up, don't write that down."

Comments

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[slapbetcommish.livejournal.com]

WITH YOUR SHINY NEW HATS.

Re: Sign In

[mauledbyabear.livejournal.com]

Emmett Cullen

During the lecture

[slapbetcommish.livejournal.com]

It's short, but there are questions to follow!

Re: During the lecture

[time-flyer-5.livejournal.com]

Jen, as an only child and also the kind of dork who paid attention to every detail of these lectures, was taking exhaustive notes.

She had the weirdest vague thought nagging at her brain, though. Something about headgear, but damn if she could articulate it.

Re: During the lecture

[mauledbyabear.livejournal.com]

Emmett was the youngest both back when he was alive and now with the Cullens.

Whatever, the youngest was totally the best.

Re: During the lecture

[iamnotallgirl]

Jack was seriously doubtful about this theory, but then, he was pretty much the definition of extenuating circumstances. Also, it just figured that Jill would sign up for something as girly as Child Development.

He wondered if the teacher would notice the new kid in her class...

Re: During the lecture

[flashesforinfo.livejournal.com]

Angela was very definitely an only child. She wouldn't say she was necessarily a typical, 'spoiled, selfish and bratty' only child, though. Although, maybe the spoiled part, just a little bit. She couldn't really help that.

She made quick notes of some of the basic points, then moved on to scrawling doodles as she listened to the rest of the lecture.

Re: During the lecture

[defeats-buses.livejournal.com]

Prince Edward listened. But he was an only prince.

But... OH! Yes! Angela was his fake big sister! Joy!

Re: During the lecture

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

Being a younger brother sucked. John flipped through the handout, wondering if it stated that somewhere.

Re: During the lecture

[swipedthatfoot.livejournal.com]

Claire listened, skeptical about the whole birth order thing. Nate so was not what a firstborn should be like going by the handouts.

[OOC: ALSO? No one icons just the Fisher siblings. I found more icons of Claire with her stepfather than of her with her brothers. WTF?]

Re: During the lecture

[gudspellr-claud.livejournal.com]

Today Claudia was wearing her favorite pair of plaid pants (puce, alfalfa and pea green, naturally) with a cropped lavender sweater, tangerine suspenders, and off-white high heeled boots. She's put on a pair of tortoise shell glasses to make her look smarter, and had accessorized with her snake bracelet and a pair of earrings that had a hamburger in one ear and a carton of french fries in the other. On anyone else, it would've looked insane. On Claudia, it looked great.

She sketched a little picture of herself and Janine on the handout. She added devil's horns to Janine just because.

Re: During the lecture

[senor-chado.livejournal.com]

As an only child and, really, the only one of his actual family left (if you discounted the Sados who had never known him because they disowned his father), Chad didn't know anything about any of this stuff. But his took a lot of notes, thoughtful ones, on his handouts, and may have been trying to sketch something out to the tune of if any of this stuff applied to Fandom siblings, of which he was the 'first born' of many.

Discussion Question #1

[slapbetcommish.livejournal.com]

"What are some traits that you think would be typical of a firstborn? What about a middle child? Youngest? Only?"


[Totally feel free to ping off each other and get a discussion going in these threads.]

Re: Discussion Question #1

[flashesforinfo.livejournal.com]

"The stereotype for only children is... really, not all that flattering," Angela commented as she looked through some of the information. "I like to think I'm not like that."

"But, not having siblings might make you more independent," she suggested.

Re: Discussion Question #1

[defeats-buses.livejournal.com]

"The firstborn is a prince!"

Re: Discussion Question #1

[swipedthatfoot.livejournal.com]

"The stereotype of the youngest is that we're spoiled and feel inferior," Claire summarized. "It's kinda insulting, but some of it makes sense? Like, I definitely used to side with my oldest brother against my other brother sometimes."

Largely, Claire would say, because David sometimes had a stick up his ass, but that was another topic.

Re: Discussion Question #1

[noboynextdoor.livejournal.com]

"I think a lot of it has to do with your parents," Jess said. "If you've got a parent who's unreliable and irresponsible, all the kids in the family could end up being more independent, even the youngest ones."

Re: Discussion Question #1

[thatsamilkshake]

Francine frowned. "I guess the youngest is supposed to be jealous of the older ones, and always trying to catch up."

Re: Discussion Question #1

[senor-chado.livejournal.com]

Chad took a moment to consider this; oddly enough, his brain went back to his friends in Japan (well, kind of). Because he didn't have any siblings, Ichigo had two little sisters, and Orihime had had an older brother, and so it was easy to pit them all against each other for comparison's sake.

And came up with one befuddled conclusion: "That's hard to say. I'm not sure that sort of thing makes a lot of difference..."

Discussion Question #2

[slapbetcommish.livejournal.com]

"What about those extenuating circumstances? How do you think birth order fits in when it comes to multiple births (twins, triplets, etc.)? How about step- or half-siblings? What if a child's raised in a different home than the rest of his family?"

Re: Discussion Question #2

[defeats-buses.livejournal.com]

"Step-mothers are evil!"

Re: Discussion Question #2

[swipedthatfoot.livejournal.com]

"Well, like, my brothers were in high school when I was born and the older one moved away when I was a baby," Claire shared. "So I'm the baby by a lot and that kind of makes me like an only going by these. I guess that's extenuating."

Quiz!

[slapbetcommish.livejournal.com]

"And finally, here's a fun little quiz (http://www.blogthings.com/birthorderpredictorquiz/) to take, just to see whether or not your answers would predict where you fall in your family."

[Go ahead and post your IC results if you want.]

Re: Quiz!

[flashesforinfo.livejournal.com]

"Mine does," Angela said as she looked over her result (http://www.blogthings.com/birthorderpredictorquiz/results/?result=OnlyChild). "But, I'm definitely not writing any self-help books."

Talk to Lily

[slapbetcommish.livejournal.com]

She's around, and maybe taking the quiz.

Re: Talk to Lily

[thatsamilkshake]

"Ms. Aldrin?" Francine held out a color print-out. "I brought baby clothes! Well, not real ones. And not so much clothes as... clothe. BUT IT HAS TINY PAWS."

OOC

[slapbetcommish.livejournal.com]

I'd like to point out that I do read up on this subject for fun (I own one of the books mentioned in the Wiki link) but have no definitive... definitions on it.

However, I'm very clearly an oldest who's mellowed out.

Re: OOC

[rocksthescarf.livejournal.com]

I'm the second middle child. Which means I'm extra not-special.

Laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaame.