Well then I'm an exception to the rule. I'm a middle child, or as I like to say when asked "the middlest." (Because people get to be 'the' oldest and 'the' youngest. So I'm 'the' middlest.) I have an older brother and a (much) younger sister. I think that generally my parents were about equally stringent on my brother and me when they were raising us; there's less than 2 years between us so that probably helped. Typically I feel like with these sorts of questions the judgment of whether someone is "doing better" depends on the yardstick, but I'd say that from a traditional point of view I've outpaced my brother in success almost across the board: Me: - earned grad degree in 4 years - found full-time corporate employment before obtaining degree - have stayed in field and almost doubled income in 3 years - live with roommate, support self - have generally obtained all the normative trappings of adulthood in American society (I think?) My brother (who, by the way, I love dearly): - currently is in his 8th year of college* - has been permanently expelled from the institution where he began his college career - has a criminal record which is extensive enough so as to potentially prevent him from getting certain jobs - does not own a car and does not have his license - has bounced around between jobs as a waiter, coffeshop person, and now, works retail for $10/hour In high school he had a 2.2 GPA on graduation, I had a 3.0 I'm trying to think if there's anything else. I don't know. His life is his life. I don't view him as a failure. I just view his life as different. He's still working on figuring out what he wants. * Not consecutively, etc, there were some kerfufflesWe provide robust empirical evidence that school performance of children in the NLSY-C declines with birth order as does the stringency of their parents' disciplinary restrictions.
Haha, I'm a mix between you and your brother (also a middle child here, 2/4). I'm getting my uni degree 2 years early. Haven't found employment (except one job as a community college tutor). Don't have a car or license (my mom hounds on me about this). 4.0+ GPA in high school, but drastically dropped down to a 3.0 in university. While my bro is more like the exact opposite. He's getting his degree a half a year late, found employment at several places, has a car/license, lower than a 4.0gpa in high school. Still low gpa (~2.7) in uni.
Yea, my reason for not driving comes from a couple things. First is not having a car. My bro has his own that he won't let me use. And my parents for a long time didn't want me driving their vans. The second reason is due to busyness as well as a slight phobia of driving. But I've started along the path, hating every second :P.
Man, I can't even fathom that. When I was a kid, I wanted nothing more than a driver's licence. To me, the ability to control where I was going on my own terms was a proxy for freedom, something I think many kids lack to a great extent. For my 16th birthday, my father split the cost of a 1983 RX-7 with me ($900 in 1998!), which was the happiest day of my life to date. The down side of having a sports car at age 16 is that it took me less than three weeks to total it.