Is Child #2 Always Crazy?

Nope! My oldest is NUTS, but my 2nd baby is SO sweet and laid back! He's only 2, but his personality is completely different than his 4 year old brother's! I'm so glad my 4 year old didn't go "nuts" until I was 5 months pregnant with my sweetie, or I wouldn't have had any more kids, but he's just a delight!

I wouldnt say nuts but maybe a little more silly. I think it also has to do with the parents. My youngest son (second baby) is a little more wild but is also sweet and cuddlie and starting to become a great listener. Most parents are more layed back after baby #1 and sometimes #2 gets away with more, but not in my house. LOL

my nephew is 10yrs old and a #2 and is extremely intelligent and has an amazing imagination and is slightly OCD but he is also the most caring, sensitive child I have ever met. When you leave his home he hugs you like he is never going to see you again (he does this with the whole family) and if you leave without letting him know he gets SOOO upset. lol Oh and he speaks with an english accent but has never been there in his life and has spoken like this since he starting talking. It is so funny, strangers actually ask us "what part of England is he from" :-)

Bethany C. You make me laugh, I have a sister with the patience of a saint, whose 3rd daughter is "spirited". She is a barrell of fun but I literally had to tell my sister I have a 2 hour time limit on sitting. Not too mention she eats constantly and is tiny for her age. We have a joke in our family that babysitting her requires a $20 grocery fee, along with a bottle of wine for after the 2 hours are up!

Hi,
Not by a long shot! My 2 oldest girls are 20 and 17 now, but when my 17 yr old was about a year old, I remember being at the ped. office with her for a check up, and actually asking him if maybe there was somethiing "wrong" with her. LOL! (assuming that she was maybe a little slow) He of course laughed at me, and thought I was very amusing. This was all because my 1st child was RUNNING by 9 months old, extremely ADHD, and I thought she was NORMAL. I had NO idea that her behavior was anything but typical. So when #2 came along and was not walking by a yr old, and would sit happily in the middle of my livingroon floor with a few toys and smile at us for an hour or so just playing with the toys, (something my 1st child NEVER did), I really thought there was something wrong with her. Now looking back I laugh because she is brilliant, a high school senior in all AP and honors classes, gorgeous, and very talented. Each of our children is so different, and they will develop at their own rate. I do believe the birth order does contribute to their personallity to a degree, but not totally. It really does depend on how you deal with each child, and obviously genetics play a part as well. I now have 4 beautiful children, all different, and none of them are "crazy". I do have challenges at times with the 2 younger ones, but I believe that is a result of events from their early years. (that and the fact that they have now been spoiled by my 2 older girls because of the huge age difference. LOL!) Don't worry, enjoy your kids! Trust me, they grow up so fast and it will seem like no time before they are moving out! I can't believe that my 1st is already grown up and moved out! She was just sitting on my lap a few days ago reading Madeline............ wasn't she??

Hi Jen,
I have 3 children and they are all great in their own way.
BTW...my kids are adults, now. I was recently told about a book and can't wait to read for myself but I think it is appropriate to your question...it is called
"The Birth Order Book" by Dr. Kevin Leman. I think it explains the differences we tend to see and many are common to our birth order.
I have never heard that child #2 will always be nuts.
My child #2 is the only girl and is presently a second year teacher in a difficult high school and is great at what she does! I guess some would say teaching high school is nuts. LOL!!!
My advice...relax and enjoy all of your babies!!!

K.

This is the exact reason I am so hesitant about getting pregnant again. I dont think it is always the case but it does seem to happen fairly often. I was the second child and was a handful as a baby and toddler. My mother has many stories about my fits of rage and once even getting kicked out of a preschool. After about the age of 6 or so I turned into a very quiet, shy child and also ended up being put in Gifted classes. My nephew is the second child in his family. He is very disobedient and takes a temper tantrum at the drop of a hat while his older sister was a very sweet baby and still is very caring and just an all around good child at the age of 7. To me personally, it kinda seems like playing the lottery. Its a gamble. But people always say God never gives you more than you can handle. So i am going to keep telling myself that as I debate trying for a second child in the near future.

I don't know that there really is a right or wrong answer to this but in my case...mine is a little stinker! My instinctual guess is that with our first pregnancies we are obsessed with every little change in our body and fully aware of everything. This can cause stress for some and we are a bit more up tight the first time. Who knows if that has an impact on the happy vibes that our children expereince in the womb.

For the second pregnancy we are just trying to keep our first child happy, eat enough to keep us full, and try and stay awake from the sheer exhaustion of having a child to care for inside our tummy and outside. Although it was a lot of work I did not feel nearly the pressure and preoccupation with my second pregnancy. Hence, a guess, the second one has a happier more easy going womb time and comes out with a go get em attitude. The second is also, when in the breathing world, forced to share time and be a more go with the flow kind of kid. I think this helps create an atmosphere for them to be more outgoing and...as you put it...Crazy!

Fun question!

If you want to check out more Fun things for Dallas Moms check out my website

It Takes a Village...
Where Dallas Moms go for Food, Family and Fun

www.ittakesavillagedallas.com

No. My #2 is the light of my life. The book ends drive me up a tree.

Mine is! Lol. People have described my now 3 year old like this "Wow, she sure is busy!", "No wonder you're so skinny! You have to chase her all over the place!", "Hmmm... well I can watch her as long as someone is there to help me." Lol!! She's a lot calmer now that she's older, but I'm surprised I havn't gone bonkers from her craziness over the last 3 years!

Well, my #2 is only 11 months. But he is the sweetest, most content baby EVER. He is by far much more laid back then our first!

Not trying to scare you but mine IS! However, he is soooooo funny and always keeps things interesting. But yeah, he was pretty much born more active, more daring, more talkative, easily bored and seeking new adventures. Have fun!

I'm debating on if we should have baby #2 --BECAUSE -- ALL the 2nd kids in our family are the 'little shits' !!! LOL I'm the first born, so of course I'm a Good one - but my DH is the second born, and yes he's the 'trouble maker' ;-)
I'm sure thats not Always the case , but that has been my experience with the 2nd child! haha so you can see why I"m hesitant to have a 2nd one. My DS is just Perfect...... why mess with that?? :-)

I think it has a lot to do with us as Moms and Dads being more "relaxed" in our parenting with the 2nd child. With our first we were doting parents of an only child. When the 2nd comes along you have to have eyes for both and so the 2nd may have a little more wiggle worm with his/her "personality".
I have also heard that the second child fills in the gaps...so if you first born is mellow, quiet, etc. the second will be opposite.

Some people will say No to your question and some will say Yes - I am with those who say YES!!! Everyone I know has a happily crazy, goofy, funny, nutso 2nd child... including myself and I love every single inch of my little tiny tornado!!!!!!

Well my "baby #2" is the Forgotten Middle Child, tehehe, and maybe because of that or maybe not, he is by far my nicest easiest kindest gentlest child!

Mine is!

He is also a middle child...and he is hilarious, goofy, wicked smart, tempermental, shy, nuts, and a handful!

And I love every minute of it!

nope. both my babies were easy and fun! very different from each other, but neither was a difficult child in any way.
:) khairete
S.

Mine is only 6 months, but is such a laid back, easy going baby...maybe because we are more so too.

OH, and I wasn't a crazy kid either!!! :)

I have to agree! My 2nd child who is 19 months old (6 1/2 years younger than his big brother), is a wild man! So much so, my BIL has nicknamed him Bam Bam! He is very loving, rambunctious, loud, giggly, and termpermental. I couldn't imagine life without him!

I think its true, due to they hear the noises inside the womb so they need to come out ready to be heard. Our oldest daughter was always yelling up the stairs because that's where the media room is, "HEY DAD I NEED YOU COME HERE Please!" Then me yelling for my husband, "HEY HONEY Can you please come help me reach me the food processor."

So our second child is quite loud. Now that she is almost 2 yrs old; yep now she yells upstairs, "DADA DADA DOWN!"

Love it, it cracks me up. So if they want to be heard they have to blend in with the environment they heard in the womb. : )

absolutley not, my 2nd child was calm and easy. My 1st was the hard one.

Mine held true, but I think sometimes, it's just when you have your second you are already chasing one around & the amount of work you have around the house is greater, therefore it seems as they are crazy but really your life is just crazy & you don't have as much time to deal with the little things like you did when you only had one. There's also our natural born competitive behavior, so they are both fighting for attention & the second has an older sibling to try to keep up with, whereas the first didn't. With your first, if dinner didn't get done because of a hectic day with the baby it was you & your other that didn't eat, now if it doesn't get done you have a child counting on you.

I only have 1 child and I am not planning on having any more (due to my age plus medical reasons) but I can tell you from those I know with 2 kids, every family is different.

My hubby has 2 boys from his first marriage (now 16 and 17 - they are 13 months apart) and he will tell you that they were different from literally the moment they were born. Older one was quiet, laid-back, hardly ever cried. Younger one came out screaming and crying and has not stopped since. He is the sweetest most caring kid on the planet but he also wants attention non-stop and will be a total pain in the butt to get it. Now that he is 16 he is finally mellowing out a little bit but he would drive you crazy when he was younger.

My cousin now has 2 kids - a girl about to turn 3, and a baby boy born this past April. The girl is a sweetie pie but has always been more "high-maintenance" - whiny, clingy, sensitive, needs attention constantly. The baby boy is just a perpetually happy, content little love bug.

A good friend of ours has 3 girls. First 2 were wonderful - mature, cooperative, virtual clones of each other. The 3rd one is the "crazy one" - she's just more strong-willed and out-spoken.

So I don't know how much of it is birth order, gender, the parents, etc. But I do think eventually the law of averages catches up with you.

I don't know about that. My first son was a quiet peaceful baby. Our second for the first 6 months was a screamer. But that was fixed after a formula change. It took us that long to convince his dr something was wrong.
Anyway after that we had a quiet baby til you put him in a car seat. He hated that.
My oldest is our loud child(teenager) and has been since he learned to talk. Not a yeller but he is just a loud talker. My second son is very soft spoken to the point you have to ask him to speak louder at times to hear him.
I have seen first borns who were crazy active while second and third were calm quiet children.

Not for us, our #2 is sweet, friendly, a little shy, and always very well behaved, never talks back and is only whiney if she is legitamately very tired or hungry. BUT...our 3 year old is loud, rambunctious, funny, drives us up a wall...when he was really little we called him Baby Farley, after the comedian...