Pecking order_其他_趣味英语-查字典英语网

Pecking order

Week after week, we read about the results of studies that researchers have just released.

Playing with fire can cause burns. Drinking bleach is dangerous to your health. Blondes still have more fun. And so on.

So I was hardly surprised last week when I read about new research on 21,000 people that finds firstborn children get more parental attention — 3,000 hours more — than their siblings. Not only that, but more quality time is spent with firstborns even as they get older.

I could have saved those researchers at Brigham Young University a lot of time and money. All they needed to do was call. I'm a second child. My brother, Gary, is three years older.

Gary had 36 months of undivided attention before I arrived on the scene. And now it's proven he got undivided attention after I arrived, too. Not that I didn't already know.

I'm not saying I was abused, ignored or left on the hillside to fend off the wolves. I'm just asking where my baby album is.

I remember cleaning out the attic with my mom a few years ago, and we came upon Gary's. There was page after page of photographs of a fat farm baby. Gary arriving home from the hospital. Gary on a blanket. Gary with his teddy bear.

I then asked where my baby album was. Mom just mumbled. She finally confessed she wasn't sure there was one.

It was then I realized what we second children have long known: To the victor go the spoils, the victor being he who arrives at the finish line first. The firstborn.