Being the youngest definitely means you get the short end of the stick as far as baby pictures go. And I get it. Parents are so overwhelmed by the time they have a kid or two or in my case, four, that they don't have time to worry about the baby sticking her/his finger in a socket, let alone documenting her/his milestones on film. Once again, it's not hugely important, I just found it amusing when I went through all those old photos I got over Thanksgiving, that there were only one or two baby pics of me by myself, and about 150,000 of my oldest sister. My dad was even a photographer with his own studio and darkroom and I have less baby photos than almost anyone I know.
Just so you can see what I'm talking about, I thought I'd post a few of my oldest sister's photos. As you can tell, my parents took careful attention to document all of her milestones.
Here she is sucking her thumb and holding her blankie.
Here is a photo of her sitting next to my mom and messing around with a paintbrush.
Here's my sister playing with her feet.
Um, here she is, uh, looking off into the distance?...
And finally, here she is looking off in the other direction, but she's older and holding some flowers this time.
I wasn't able to find any new photos of me. I think there might be one of me sitting unattended in the corner somewhere, chewing on lead based paint chips. As soon as I find it, I'm going to make a huge button out of it and wear it daily to excuse every single one of my many flaws..
12 comments:
Churlita,
You have flaws?
Recognizing that common faux pas, we diligently took a gazillion pics of all 3 of our kids, together and alone.
rel
Rel,
Ha, ha, to the first part of your comment.
You and your wife are very conscientious. I hope your children appreciate it.
too cute!
Michelle,
Thanks. Wouldn't it be great to have the camera and the facilities to take those kind of photos of your children?
I didn't know you smoked!
Actually, that's one of the few flaws I don't possess. My mom died of a stroke at 43 and I've had it drilled into my head at an early age, that it would kill me if I did it too.
Did I imply that I smoked?
The "youngest" of the brood is normally termed the "Last Born" typically described in psychology as affectionate, sensitive, people-oriented, attention-seeking, indulged, dependent, laid-back, tenacious, absent-minded, relaxed, fun, flaky...as they say the last born is a relatively low-pressure position...parents would more likely take a laissez-faire attitude (why the less pictures)expectedly their relationship with their last-borns is less intense than with the older children because the parents have to divide their attention among more children...the advantage is having somewhat more distance in their relationship with their parents can give last-borns freedom to explore new ideas and new places...an easy excuse for getting away with IT On the other hand when the emotional distance is too great, youngest children may feel disconnected, as though they somehow don't belong in the family...last-borns are described as smart and they often carve out a place for themselves by being clever and charming...they are able to make people like them developing impressive social skills...they become skilled politicians, learning to get through negotiation... last-borns capitalize on their position as smallest by elevating helplessness to a high art. They learn that they don't have to do housework, for example, if they can get others to do it for them. As adults, they may have difficulty keeping track of commitments and finishing what they start. Playing the "baby card" also allows them to avoid the consequences for wrongdoing...
Major E Flat,
I hope you're not implying that any of that is bad, are you? I liked having the freedom to continually screw-up that my older siblings didn't have.
Did all that just come off the top of your head? Because if it did, I'm going to be very impressed.
I wuz not implying anything bad about our birth order...first-born...middle-born...last-born...
its just exactly what is is birth order...and there seems to be a perceived psychological effect...could be true and could be untrue...could be good or not good...but absolutely not bad...our parents do have a different approach to birth order...maybe we are just reacting to the way they were reacting to us as siblings...who knows...that's the ambiguity of life experiences...its never the same with two people...they maybe raised with the same environment...the same parents..etc...but they will never grow up and be the same...no matter what...you will always be a unique creation of life itself...Don't worry...Be happy...By the way... I belong to the middle born children...while the oldest and youngest children can easily find better reasons to be happy about their place in a big family, but with middle children...I was not the eldest (seniority) or strongest (bully) and I was not the baby who gets away with murder and at times I don't feel anything special about me and much worst I often times feel quite invisible to the naked eye...that's birth order for some of us...
I was just kidding in my earlier comment. My sister was the middle kid who wasn't the only boy. We used to call her Jan Brady because she was way into dramatics as a child.
Actually I was just implying that you look just like your mom!
Oh, I get it now...I didn't even realize she was holding a ciggie until you pointed it out. I think I was too used to it, to notice.
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