The royal family recently made a discovery that many parents could have told them. In an interview Prince Charles said they were finding Princess Charlotte is a much a easier baby than her brother, first born Prince George. It seems even in royal households, second babies are easier on the parents and even the grandparents. The reasons are probably fairly self-evident.

Second Babies Are Easier on Parents

Prince Charles was telling interviewers how Charlotte sleeps through the night and is just generally a happier more relaxed baby. This supports research that shows first born children tune into their parent’s anxiety, making them more of a perfectionist and higher maintenance. By the time parents have their second child they are more relaxed. They have done this before and know what to expect. As a result the second child is much more likely to be calmer than their older sibling.

The Reason Order Matters in Siblings

With today’s smaller families, it just may be that parents are not experiencing the sibling pecking order that big families tend to develop. There have been dozens of books published about sibling order including the most well known of them all, Dr. Kevin Leman’s The Birth Order Book. With the trend towards smaller families, having only two or three kids may make this difference even more apparent. Older siblings take control, middle children negotiate and the youngest tend to be the most confident, according to some research. With young Prince George getting the attention of a first born and heir to a throne, it will be interesting to see just how true to form the two royal children are to sibling order predictors.

Easy Babies Make Easier Parents

The little princess may be an easier child to care for because of her birth order, or she just may be an easier going personality. As any parent will tell you, each child in a family is different with different needs and reactions. With today’s preponderance of single child families, will we then end up with a nation of precocious self-absorbed first-borns? Second babies are easier perhaps because they always have a sibling to watch over them, boss them around and remind them that they are not the only little darlings in their parent’s world. In the end, that may be the most important lesson they get of all.