Originally posted by ChronicLeakyMuch of it has to do with personality. My oldest sister was quiet, too, though she was my mother's favorite....she WAS a dear and was my little mother. The middle girls were dominant. The second one was extremely domineering and continues to be so. She was my dad's favorite because they were so much alike...even though they butted heads a lot.
I am the second of three. I got less grief from and gave more grief to my parents than either of my sisters did, although I'm less attention-seeking (and less nice) than either of them. This would seem to violate part of the stereotype, but we're also quite close in age and the stereotype is probably not true much more often than it isn't.