Many smart people have spent many long years researching a strange phenomenon related to birth order. The theory goes something like this: your personality is directly impacted by your birth order. If you’re the firstborn, you tend to be a certain way. If you’re the youngest, you tend to be another way. I’m no psychologist, but I can assure you, it’s all true, and it all goes back to your mother. May the good Lord help you if you were born after number five.
The Metamorphosis of Motherhood
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After your first child |
After your third child |
Sometime after your fifth child |
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Maternity clothes are so cute! |
I can’t wait to get back into my normal clothes. |
These are my normal clothes. |
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Jake, come here! |
Jake, I mean Susie, come here! |
You—come here! No, not you. You! Yes, you! If I say “you,” I mean you! |
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Look at the homemade costume I made for you! |
Let’s see what’s left at the costume store. |
Here’s some aluminum foil and a Sharpie. |
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What would you like for dinner? |
This is what we’re having for dinner. |
If you don’t eat the casserole, it’s going in the soup for tomorrow. |
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Don’t eat that off the floor! |
The floor isn’t that dirty. |
Get it before your brother does. |
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Your birthday is only a month away! We’d better start planning. |
I forgot candles. I’ll hold up five fingers and you can blow them out. |
No, I didn’t forget your birthday. It’s called a “surprise party.” |
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Would you like to learn soccer, karate, piano, origami, French pastry making, Spanish, or water polo? |
You’re taking ballet because your sister takes ballet. |
There are lots of great cartoons on in the afternoons for kids your age. |
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Let’s pick up before Daddy gets home. |
Let’s pick up before Grandma comes. |
Let’s just move. |
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Let me help you! |
Let me know if you need my help. |
You don’t need my help. |
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I’ve created a wish list of educational toys for Timmy’s first Christmas. It includes all the Newberry award-winning books, a baby biology set, Latin fridge magnets, and a planetary motion crib mobile. |
Don’t buy him anything that makes noise, needs batteries, might choke the baby, or requires parental supervision. |
Just give us the money. |
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My husband wrote me a love note and rubbed my feet! |
He watched the kids so I could go to the grocery store by myself! |
He vacuumed!!! |
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We need to childproof the house. |
How come the baby is the only one who can open the baby gate? |
He’ll only do it once. |
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Please put on your new shirt. |
Please put on a clean shirt. |
At least you’re dressed. |
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I will never be one of those mothers. |
I feel sorry for those mothers. |
I am one of those mothers! |
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I didn’t know I could love anyone like this. |
I didn’t know my love could multiply like this. |
There’s always room to love one more. |
LOL! that’s pretty good. I’m due with my 8th baby end of summer… oldest is 14. I’m definitely in the last stage now..I love being a mama!
“Let’s just move!” Bwahahahahahahaha!!! You. Ain’t. Kidding.
I would agree!!! With three I am definitely thinking birth order changes as we go on. Though I did tell my husband (who since 3 is five days old is a bit confused), we need one more. #2 CANNOT be a middle child!!! I will say though with #3 being our first girl, she may get a little more special joy placed upon her. The frills and all… though I had a friend ask when she is going to start swimming, since big brothers are both swimmers!!!
It’s always good to think ahead! Congratulations on your new little one. What a blessing!
Loved it – just had to share – as the mother of seven, I can attest to it’s truth! 🙂
Laurie
Thanks so much for sharing! You are a blessed momma!
I love it! I would also like to add that: You feed Child #1, allow others to feed Child #2, and assume Child #3 has been feed if not screaming. Child #1 is always called by his/her name, Child #2 is usually called by a nickname (bubba, sissy or the likes), and Child #3 and following are simply referred to as Baby. At a birthday party for my friend’s third child, we actually sang, “Happy Birthday to Baby” because we couldn’t remember his name! Child # 1 is always safely buckled into the car seat and not allowed to get out, Child #2 is buckled, but somehow get’s out before he/she should, Child #3 tends to get left behind, but is always picked up later. 😉 BUT ALL children are loved!
It’s so true! I called my twins “The babies” until they were over three. One day, someone asked me what their middle names are and I had to stop and think about it for a second!
Loved this. As a mom to only one, though, I can relate somehow to all stages.
Thank you. As a mom to just 1, I can still somehow see all the stages in me.
Baby number six tipped me from column two into column three lol!
My babies always wore singlets under their clothing… Until baby number 6
I always heated up the baby’s food… Until baby number 6
I always made sure that baby was taken out of pj’s & put in to day clothes before leaving the house… Until baby number 6.
AND baby has survived it just fine 😉
Love it!!! It’s nice to know I’m not the only one. You held out pretty long–it took six to break you! 🙂
I was just introduced to your blog and love it as much as the others do! You have a great sense of humor but in order to deal with children, it is a must! I can truly relate as I have three of my own. The oldest two are 14 months apart so I went from stage one to three pretty fast! Our third child was born four years after the last and she is a fast learner and quite sneaky with that intelligence of hers…opening up a gate was nothing, I can imagine she could break into a locked house at the age of three and be cute enough to get away with it! LOL
So true! Those youngest children are a force to be reckoned with!
I wish that chart were an image so I could pin it on Pinterest! I only have two, but I’m in stage three. What on Earth would happen to us with five? LOL.
OK, maybe more like Stage 2 and dabbling in Stage 3, but STILL! Hilarious.
That’s funny you should say that because I told my husband the same thing–I need this as an image! And he’s converting it for me right now. 😉 Will repost it again soon so it can more easily be shared!
Thanks, enough to make me laugh happy today
You are most welcome! 🙂
This totally cracked me up! My friend and I have talked before about the phenomenon of sterilizing Baby 1’s paci, spitting on Baby 2’s paci, letting the dog lick it for baby #3… What can I say? It happened…. And with 7 kids my biggest reason to be thankful is that there is not a Baby #8. Knock on Wood.
Ah, as the oldest of 10, I know that my mom and I can relate! 🙂 We used to laugh about an old joke where the parents rushed their firstborn off to the emergency room when he had swallowed a penny. Fast-forward to several children later when another child swallowed a dime and without batting an eye the Dad said, “It’s coming out of your allowance.”
Oh my goodness! This made me laugh so hard!
I’m having trouble leaving comments from my main blog. The format wants to keep reverting back to my (private) wordpress blog. I’ll figure it out at some point. 😉 Anyway, my public blog is: http://songinmyheart-rachele.blogspot.com/
Let’s see if I can do it this time…
Oh good–I posted your comment on my Five in Tow FB page, and was going to leave the link to your blog, but when I went there, I found it was private so I didn’t. I’ll post this one now! Sometimes, there seems to be a lag in the comments appearing. I had that happen on the giveaway. Lots of people ended up posting two comments because the first didn’t show up right away. But, eventually, it seems to filter through cyber-space and get to me. Thanks for posting your great comment and the link to your blog!
Love this! But, I didn’t have to pass kid 5. I was in that third column before my fourth was born. My favorite is the one about only the baby being able to open the baby gate. That is SO either one of my boys (the youngest two)!
I used to nanny for a little boy who could get over any barricade known to man. I finally had to take all the gates down because falling off of one was worse than whatever danger I was trying to keep him from in the first place!
Too funny and Too true! LOL
Our 1st and 3rd looked so much alike, we couldn’t tell their pics apart.
I mentioned this to the pediatrician who said, “Same here. We were too busy to take photos by the 3d, so just took half of the 8 million we took of the first and wrote the 3d’s name on the back.”
That’s so true! I laugh when I see first-time parents posting videos of their babies on FB. I’m so not there anymore! My mom keeps begging for ONE picture of my children…just one!
Good one!
I’m probably not even allowed to read this since I only have 2 kids, but your blog is quickly becoming one of my favorites! Thanks for the laugh. I’m passing this on to my neighbor who’s a mother of 4 🙂
funny….and sooo true! 🙂
Love it! For me it was the pacifiers: boiled number one’s for 10 minutes before putting in his mouth; rinsed number 2’s under the hot tap; wipe number 3’s on my shirt and hand it back to him…if he hasn’t grabbed it out of the dirt and shoved it in his mouth already!
I absolutely love it!!!
Great post
I only have 1, but I am solidly in stage 2. When I’m tired, I fall into stage 3 if no mothers are around to see what happens…..
I still remember dad reaching back from the drivers seat and hold out his fingers saying “Blow out the candles”!
Me too! So funny!
With 2- I bounce between the last 2 columns. Eating off the floor is how Tim gets his food! Ok not that bad, but some days!
See, that’s why we stopped at three! Because your dad did do the “blow out the fingers” thing for your little brother. (Ok, so we were on the way home from the Philippines and had no way of celebrating with “real” candles, but still!!!)
As a mom of 5, this one gave me a chuckle. Thanks for that. 🙂 Funny how times change!
Thank you! But there’s a problem here because somehow five YEARS of my ONE redhead seems to have progressed me into that third column on a whole heck-of-a-lot of these. 😉
You’ve been broken in. 🙂
Blowing out fingers = tears of laughter again. Love this blog. Going to facebook this one.
PS, as I match column three with only two kids, does that make me a fast learner or a bad mother? Probably best if you don’t answer that 🙂
I was going to say exactly the same!
Since I’m in column three on most of these, I’ll say fast learner. 😉
So great, Kristen!! I needed a good laugh on this Monday. 🙂