On the Influence of Birth Order: The youngest child

I was a youngest child. Was I spoiled? I think that’s the wrong question. Too pejorative. But as anyone who grew up with at least one sibling, there is a lot to contemplate when it comes to birth order. Why am I the way I am when my brother/sister is the say he/she is?

 

I was the planned baby, a true baby-boomer born after the war, three weeks before the family moved to the house on Main Street in Downers Grove where I spent the first 18 years of my life. Yes, I went to college, but it took me two decades before I found a fitting career. I’m a late bloomer, but better late than never.

  

I have five children, a stepdaughter, three sons and a daughter. Each child is so different from the next, birth order influenced, most definately. It’s probably not helpful to ask, who had it better? But I can certainly identify with the challenges of my youngest. I had them, too. -gw

 

 

Train these children with divine exhortations. From their childhood instill in their hearts the love of God so they may manifest in their lives the fear of God and have confidence in the bestowals of God. Teach them to free themselves from human imperfections and to acquire the divine perfections latent in the heart of man. The life of man is useful if he attains the perfections of man. If he becomes the center of the imperfections of the world of humanity, death is better than life, and nonexistence better than existence. Therefore, make ye an effort in order that these children may be rightly trained and educated and that each of them may attain perfection in the world of humanity. Know ye the value of these children for they are all my children.

 

“The Promulgation of Universal Peace: Talks Delivered by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá during His Visit to the United States and Canada in 1912”, 2nd. ed. (Wilmette: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1982), pp. 52–54 [147]

 

 

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