Customer Reviews

Birth Order Book

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This book is a general overview of Leman's beliefs about birth order, personality development, and family relationships. It is organized into 5 parts: introduction, first-borns, later-borns, marriage and birth order, and parenting and birth order. At the end of the book are end-note references and a short list of other works by Dr. Leman, as well as his contact information if you would like to schedule him for a speaking engagement.

Leman summarizes his own and others' work on birth order and personality development. He claims that first-borns and only children tend to be well-organized and reliable perfectionists, middle-borns loyal and independent mediators, and last-borns charming and manipulative people persons, and that these characteristics can be traced directly to the family dynamics resulting from the addition of each individual child to the family. He notes that while many readers or attendees to his seminars may be reluctant to go along with these generalizations, he observes that specific birth orders tend to be over-represented in certain professions, such as first-borns as academic architects and last-borns as used car sales people. He notes that first-borns tend to seek professional counseling more often than others because they are such stressed-out perfectionists, and that middle-borns tend to grow up to be relatively well-adjusted (perhaps because they had ample opportunities to learn to deal with unfairness as youngsters). In each of his descriptive chapters, he offers self-help advice for a happier approach to daily life. He also suggests which birth-order pairs are likely to result in better marital relations, and he provides parenting advice for children specific to their birth orders (drawing heavily from and strongly promoting another of his books entitled Making Your Children Mind So You Don't Lose Yours).

Leman's style of writing in this book is very informal and anecdotal. He doesn't present or acknowledge any specific research findings concerning birth orders and personality. He also gives no consideration to other factors affecting personality development such as genetics or family environmental factors beyond birth order. At the end of many chapters, he brings in a spiritual dimension, but these passages often come across as pasted on, since they are not well integrated with the rest of the text. Despite these flaws, the book is still somewhat informative, and it can provide the general reader a basic understanding of the theory of birth order and its affect on personality development.

I read this book when I was in college studying to be a teacher and once I was in the classroom with children, I was amazed at how I could figure out the birth order of each child in my classroom within the first week. Years later, I find myself working in Corporate America and the same holds true. No matter our age, gender or race... our birth order truly sets us with a pattern of characteristics that follow us through life and can assist everyone in how to work better with others if you have this knowledge. I think it should be a required reading for anyone in management or customer service as well as anyone who works with children or has even one child. Knowledge is power and better understanding our fellow man is a step towards peace. Give it a try!

I love this book. I felt like such a failure in the kiddos department, I have 3 boys and I thought the way they were and their personalities were so different and strange, I was sure they were just my failures. I read this book and it was all put into perspective. These personality differences were actually just typical for their birth order and for that matter my personality and hang ups were typical for my birth order. It just all made so much more sense after reading this book and since I have read this book, I have bought 3 other copies and given them to friends. I recommend this book all of the time.

This has some interesting information. I think a lot of the birth order theory is pretty accurate; it actually did make me feel better to know my perfectionism is partially due to my first-born status, and therefore not ENTIRELY my fault!

That said, the writing is tripe. The language is incredibly cheesy, VERY pop, and very simplistic. It's bland, and the author's sense of humor and cultural references are VERY grounded in his generation (which just makes him sound annoyingly out of touch). He also draws excessive attention to himself, his family, and his accomplishments, and he name-drops a LOT. Good lord, who on earth is impressed by that?

It's a fine book for the info, as long as you like pop psychology, pay as little attention to the writing as possible, and have a LOT of patience.

There are many aspects which affect the way a person will behave in life. Most people point to genetics, environment, or other variables as reasons people develop the personalities they have. However, The Birth Order Book by K. Leman introduces a new factor to consider when investigating the origin of someone's personality. This book cites the order in which one is born as the primary factor in deciding one's personality. The book is a very interesting and entertaining read for anyone.
Everyone from firstborns to middle children to lastborns will find The Birth Order Book both interesting and informative. The book can also help anyone deal with anyone else by teaching them to better understand the other birth orders. It will also help a person to better understand and improve upon themselves. Firstborns will find ways to get over their perfectionism, in the same way as lastborns will find ways to concentrate more and `tone it down a little'.
The Birth Order Book's best attribute is its sections on marriage and parenting. This part of the book is perhaps most helpful because it can teach couples to work together according to their differing birth orders. It gives a run through of just about every birth order combination and how they can have the most effective and happy marriage. The section that concerns parenting is also very helpful. It lets parents know that every child should not be treated the same; rather, they should be parented according to their birth order personality.
The Birth Order Book is a great read for anyone and everyone who wants to improve upon their life. The way Leman informs us about a certain birth order and then relates it back to his own experiences make the book interesting and entertaining.

I first read this book one summer during middle school. My (middle sibling) sister had bought it, presumably to figure out why she always got the shaft in our family.

Since that summer, I've understood my family with greater clarity, I've dealt with friends and co-workers more effectively, and I've (perhaps this isn't such a positive thing) been successfully pigeon-holing people (with decent accuracy) since then.

I guarantee that this book will describe to a tee your family and the families of your friends and loved ones. The whole birth order thing may just be a fad, but it surely appears to provide real insight into human behavior.

I'm a first born, and i've argued with many people that parents should have an alternate way other than always having high expectations for me and be like a geni pig for the rest of the family.
After reading this book, it helped me understand why i am the way i am now, and why my parents treat me the way they do, and why others became the people they are now.
It helped me see things from a different perspective, and I became a less judging person and more uniderstanding because of what i know about their birth order.
The Book is the best and i think everyone should have it

I am a middle child, and the description of my siblings, their roles in the family, and my own temperament and style were spot-on. I sent a copy to my married son and wife. I look at my friends and their siblings now and I can see the source of both contention and happiness in their family constellations.

I found this book to be very interesting. It can help you better understand why certain people are the way they are and quite possibly how you can better interact with them. The book had lots of interesting tidbits such as pilots are usually first born and used car salesmen are typically last borns. The author spent a lot of time talking about his own kids which I could care less about and he plugged his other books a bit too much considering he didn't really present loads of scientific info - primarily opinions based on his "observations". The book was interesting though and I would recommend it to people with children or who work with children. Take the book out of the library instead of buying it b/c it's not worth the overall selling price and you'll probably only look at it at best.

This is a great book to read when you wonder why your children are like they are. Dr. Leman colorfully illustrates every example from stories of his childhood, or stories other parents have shared. I laughed almost the whole way through it. The book is a great, inexpensive, gift for parents! I would advise this book to everyone. Even if you aren't a parent, and I'm not, this is still a great book. If you wonder what will motivate your employees, this will give you some ideas. Once you read this book you will end up analyzing your spouse, close friends, parents, and children...and you may start to understand them a little better!!