Is Forer’s discussion of birth order accurate or inaccurate for the children in your family? Explain.

Vida
Reading / Writing
July 7, 2010

Forer’s essay brings us a novel view to consider the relationship among family members. In my eyes, his discussion of birth order is accurate for the children in general cases. It explained well why the children in the same family turned into people with such different characteristics. In the following paragraphs, I will testify his opinion by two examples which are close to my life: birth orders in my family and in my mother’s family.

My family is composed of four people: dad, mom, grandma and me. I’m the only child of my parents. When I was a baby, my parents hovered over my all the time tensely and anxiously with great expectation. If I struggled with some problems, they would give me a hand and protect me without hesitation. Their on-going protection and concerns are the main obstacles for me to change my perception of being a child to being an adult. In addition, as mentioned in Forer’s essay, the feeling of insecurity is always surrounding me. Being afraid of loneliness and helplessness, I am always trying to learn as much as possible and solve problems by myself. Independently solving problems guarantees the only child for living in a good condition without the help and protection of his or her parents.

My mother’s family is another typical case to prove Forer’s opinion. Living in a family with four children, my mom, the eldest child in the family, played a role of barrier between children and their parents. She is responsible and parental to her siblings, always treating herself as a model of her younger siblings. Even when they had grown up, she was still trying to lead them, protect me and teach them. She has a strong sense of responsibility to her siblings. She often said, “If I don’t help them to deal with the problems, I cannot face to my soul.” In terms of the attitude of parents to them, she was paid much more attention on than her siblings. For example, her parents were very strict to her behavior. She was required to go home early in the evening. Otherwise, she would be locked outside the door. She was also required to study hard, as well as take care of her younger siblings. The high stress in her early life made her characteristics as seriousness and responsibility. In comparison, her siblings were more relaxed than her. They often have more freedom and have a chance to treat things in an easy way. They were never worried about being locked outside the door if they went back to home late in the evening because their parents became more tolerant to them with the experience on my mom.

The patterns of my family and my mom’s family exactly match the conditions Forer mentioned in his essay. Although these two examples hardly represent the conditions of all cases, it is obviously that Forer’s opinion is accurate in general cases.