Who's The Boss?

Family dynamics are interesting and remarkably consistent across families, no matter how different they are. I know mine the best, of course, but I've also observed this consistency in other families with a similar makeup. This has to do with birth order.

The first born is the leader and protector of the others. Rock Girl is the one the younger ones always look to, no matter what to find out what they need to do. She is the example and they listen to her (when they want to). In all honesty, they listen to her more than they do us, but she's really good and listens to us, so she does set a good example. When it comes to the protection factor, we've seen her on more than one occasion chastising some poor kid at McDonald's who made her sisters cry. She comes to their rescue unapologetically, for that, we're exceptionally proud of her.

The second child is the quiet one. The Socialite goes with the flow of whatever the others are doing, but she does it with her own style. She very imaginative and creative, but also outgoing. Because she is forced to interact with someone both older and younger than her, she socializes very well. She has already gotten into trouble at school for talking to her friends in class, but this is something we pretty well expected because she takes after the Queen in many, many ways, and this is just one of them. Her downside is that while she can outsmart her sisters, she also allows herself to be pushed around by both of them, which leads us to number three.

The third born is the baby and the boss. Because she's at the bottom of the pecking order, Sassy Pants is the loudest of the three, demands to be heard, and will not rest till her peace is heard, and her way is obtained. While we were driving one day, we heard her demanding to see what The Socialite had because she needed to see it. Now, it wasn't a case of "I want it," but she just needed to look at it. Last night, we asked the Princesses what they wanted for dinner, and the older two declared pizza (well, as you might guess, Rock Girl declared pizza and The Socialite went along with the "awesome" idea), but Sassy Pants went her own way and demanded Mac and Cheese (of all things). Well, having been outvoted, the night was ruined. She whined, complained, and carried on the rest of the evening about wanting nothing other than Mac and Cheese (despite our repeated commentary about home not being a restaurant). As you might also be able to guess, she refused to eat anything.

As luck would have it, they were going to have a pizza day at preschool today. She wanted peanut butter and jelly. Yeah, she got the sandwich in her lunch box.