To ask your experience of girl boy boy birth order?

[GBBexperience]

Please this isn't a gender disappointment thread so be kind. I'm completely overwhelmed.

I've just had my third and final baby and I have had a second boy. He is a delight but I had thought he was a girl throughout pregnancy (my intuition was clearly off...)

I am trying to adjust while awash with hormones and I think my main worry is how the birth order of GBB works.

There are 2 years between each of them and the older 2 get on pretty well in the main. I am worried my girl will be left out.

Thank you.

I'm the middle of 3. My brother and sister teamed up on me. I'd say it's more about personality of the children than their sex.

I have GBG and ds does sometimes get left out as he just isn't into getting his nails done (all my 3 are in their early 20s now). But the 3 of them cooked Christmas dinner together for us this year and it was a delight to listen to them in the kitchen!

We really tried not to impose gender expectations or roles on them and I think that attitude has helped them to feel free to do their own thing now.

I get it, in the sense I really wanted DC2 to be another girl, so DD would have a sister (I’m one of 3 girls, and so close to my sisters). I had a boy and adore him. I think it’s different to when we grew up, families are much smaller now and as such many (most?) little girls don’t have sisters. All the families I know have 1 child, or boy/girl, bar a handful.

I have GBB. I felt like you do when DS2 arrived and I am also from an all girl family. DD and DS1 are really, really close. DD and DS 2 are close. DS1 is jealous of DS2, and often mean to him, because he thinks he gets all of our attention, while DS2 adores both his older siblings.

Once you had G/B you must have known that having a third was going to give you a 2/1 split. If you had had a second girl would you feel that you had ruined DS's life?
You will probably find that the younger two 'team up' for some things, that the elder two for others and that the dynamic changes as the middle one will sometimes feel more similar to the older child and sometimes to the younger one. So when only to are at school DS1 may find DD to be more of a peer but when only DD is at school the two little ones will be more of a gang.

Not quite the same but I am the eldest with 3 younger brothers so we were GBBB!

We are all very close now but I did feel left out when we were younger and I was quite jealous. I was jealous of them for being boys (which I desperately wanted to be 😂) but also jealous how their closeness. I felt left out of their games and that I couldn’t wee up the walls like them! I can’t say that they purposely left me out but they were just this close little gang. My mum had the 3 of them in the US so I was even different from them in that way.

BUT as adults we are all extremely close.

Also, I actually went on to have DBBBB! My DD LOVES being the only girl and has even tried to twist my arm to complete the football team! She’s a bit older than the boys but she 100% is happy with the set up!

I have GGG which i'm secretly relieved about tbh because my DH is the eldest with 2 younger sisters. My SILs (along with MIL) are very cliquey and i'm always left out...

Was that supposed to help?

I'm the eldest of GBB siblings. I think at times we tolerated each other and there were times where the boys went off and did their own thing because they had more in common with each other than they did me.

But... we felt like a gang. Like if anyone picked on one of us, god help you, because you had the other 2 to deal with as well.

My brothers did a lot of sport together but I like my own company and had really close relationships with my mum, Nans and Auntie because I spent a lot of time with them. I never felt left out.

As adults we don't live in each others pockets, but when we do see each other it's really nice. We get on well and our kids really enjoy seeing each other.

It's definitely down to personalities and parenting I think.

My best friend has this and all is great, all of her kids get on really well.
Congratulations!

In my family it was BBBG, I was the youngest and the only girl. I love my brothers; always have, always will.

No ganging up.
No negatives arising from the G/B thing itself.

Natural distancing between G and younger brothers when she hits puberty and matures and they do so later because of age and later still because boys do later than girls anyway.

Naturally different talents and interests meant less shared activity but inherent bond as siblings.

Special bond between G and B1 in adulthood after a few years doing their own thing more. B2 in this case was 5 years younger than B1 so always seen as the baby but B1 and B2 were best men for each other and have a lovely bond, as do G and B2.

I'm from GBB siblings with 2 year age gaps, the boys fought like cat and dog and I always have been closest to B1. I also have GBB but bigger age gaps so probably not relevant, however G and B1 have always been close.

All the examples I have come across of this combination have looked really positive - I know it's a sweeping generalisation, but girls often do make better/more mature role models than boys so it can be a really positive thing for the younger brothers to be looking up to their older sister.

Same here. I think that kind of harsh parenting might be generational, though.

I’m the G in this situation. Growing up it was often 2 of us paired up but we seemed to rotate which 2 it was. I have plenty of memories of playing as a group, playing in pairs and also playing by myself things like Barbie’s which they had no interest in. If anything it was nice to have the variety of playmates/solo! We are all close as adults

I have GBB. 2 years between GB and then 5 years between BB. Occasionally GB would be best friends, sometimes BB . Usual childhood stuff. No issues at all.

Don’t be sure that this is an unkindness to the boys though - it might well be that it makes the girl feel very left out rather than them feeling “lumped together”.

Yes, sorry. This is what I meant.
She is often left out. She is the oldest but its always The boys, and then her. As if the parents see them as a team and she is the extra. I was just giving my experience of that GBB set up.

I had gbb for a few years (until dc4 arrived). G got on well with B2 for a time and eventually b1 and b3 got on well.
Now they are adults g and b1 are good friends (as are their children) but all get on okay but with their own lives and friends. You can never predict how well they will get on