My ‘man in the middle’ son Itchy and I were talking the other night about school. My oldest son Drew made all the sports teams he tried out for this year. Very cool for him and certainly garnering him a lot of attention for his athletic prowess. But Itch isn’t old enough to try out for any of the school teams yet.
It seems he does want to get rolling with some fun extra curriculars at school though.
“Are there any Clubs that interest you that you could join?” I ask him.
And without missing a beat, he replies:
“Yeah. The Breakfast Club.”
Ha! The donut hole doesn’t roll far from the Double Chocolate Glazed, does it?
Itch smells the buttered toast in the halls of his school in the morning and wants to know when the try-outs are.
I would have thought the same thing back in my day and it got me thinking about the similarities he and I share. We are way more into writing and art then the rest of our household. We would giggle through every meal if it wasn’t for our other, more serious family diners. And we’re both the second born. So, I hit the internet.
As you would guess, sources report that the first born children in families are (sigh) touted as the responsible ones. They are achievers, perfectionists and reliable. Notable first borns are Walter Cronkite, Peter Jennings, Dan Rather, Ted Koppel and over half of all U.S. Presidents are first borns. Bill Clinton is a first born.
Second borns get hit with (apparently) wanting to overcome the first born but knowing that we never will because no matter what, at the end of the day, we can’t change the fact that we will always be ‘second’ or ‘next’.
We wait for the second hand clothes. We’re next in line for the bigger room – we just have to wait until the older one moves out. That’s only 18 human years or 126 dog years.
Being next is not always a complaint though.
“Which of you is first?” Asks the receptionist at the dentist’s office.
“He is. I’m always next”, grins Mr. Second Born.
Many say we #2’s feel we can’t compete with our over achieving older siblings so that’s why we choose different paths.
If you saw a busy street up ahead, wouldn’t you take a detour? Hind sight is twenty twenty so from back here, we’ve got perfect vision. It only makes sense to opt for the road less traveled.
Bill Clinton’s younger brother, Roger, became a musician and formed a rock band. Roger Clinton could have worked his butt off in University, become a lawyer, and fought in politics, run a State, then get publicly humiliated and bashed during a stint in the Whitehouse.
But why?
Eating buttered toast and being in a band sounds like way more fun! At least from this second borns point of view.