Hi, Anna! Thanks for your contribution to my story! I am excited to read about personal experiences from people with smaller siblings. My story is a hypothesis based on observation and the research I found on my way to understand how a smaller age gap between siblings affects their success in life. I think you're right and it may be a combination of birth order and personality. Still, for introverts like my husband who had their feelings and negative emotions invalidated as a child, being big brothers took something away from them. When I bring this topic up he usually doesn't say anything which I know does not confirm it but neither denies it. Usually, we discuss his childhood when we debate over parenting methods, and sadly, now that he is a parent, I can see the harm his parents have done with him as he is replicating (to some extent, because he does use personal filters) the parenting style he learned as a child, with our son. He uses this "you're a big boy now so now you'll..." too much which angers and saddens me because as an older brother, he got to grow to hear it every day that it imprinted in his DNA. Thanks, Anna. I admit that it's not the birth order or age gap after all. It's about how the parents are managing it.