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If you’ve ever wondered how your kids can grow up in the same home yet be completely different, birth order may have more to do with it than you think. In this episode of the Mothers of Boys Survival Guide Podcast, I talk with Dr. Robert Hurst, author of Life’s Fingerprint: Your Birth Order, about how birth order shapes personality, behavior, and sibling dynamics—especially when raising boys.
We break down classic birth order traits and go deeper into real-life parenting, including sibling rivalry, blended families, and twins. This conversation will help you better understand your children, reduce conflict, and parent each child for who they are—not where they fall in line.
Dr. Robert V.V. Hurst is an orthodontist with more than 50 years of experience working closely with children, teens, and families. Over the course of his career, he began to notice consistent patterns in behavior that traditional birth order theory didn’t fully explain. That curiosity led him to develop a more nuanced approach to understanding personality, culminating in his book Life’s Fingerprint: Your Birth Order – How Birth Order Affects Your Path Throughout Life.
Through his work and on his website, MyBirthOrder, Dr. Hurst shares insights into how birth order influences relationships, decision-making, and family dynamics across a lifetime. His expanded theory—including concepts like “double birth order”—offers parents practical tools to better understand their children and support each child’s unique strengths.
The information provided in this podcast is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute professional advice. Consult with a qualified professional for specific guidance.
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If you grew up with a brother or sister and now find yourself raising children of your own, you may have already noticed how birth order seems to impact personalities within a family. Kids growing up in the same home can be very different. Some naturally take charge, others are more easygoing, and some seem determined to carve out their own unique path.
My guest today is Dr. Robert Hurst, who spent more than 50 years as an orthodontist, observing thousands of children and teens. Through those years of working closely with families, he began noticing patterns that traditional birth order theory didn’t fully explain. His research led him to write a book, Life’s Fingerprints: How Birth Order Affects Your Path Throughout Life. Dr. Hurst, welcome to the podcast.
Dr. Hurst: Thank you, Suzy. I’m glad to be here, and I’ll try to answer all your questions about birth order.
Suzy Shaw: And would you like me to call you Dr. Hurst? Robert Hurst? What would you like?
Dr. Hurst: Well, you can call me Dr. Bob. Many of my patients call me that, so let’s keep it more informal.
Suzy Shaw: Great. So the first thing I want to say is your book, and for those who are on YouTube, I’m showing it to you. It is really beautiful, and I enjoyed looking through it. What motivated you to write it?
Dr. Hurst: Well, for many years, I was using the theory of birth order in my practice, and I had a patient who was a pediatrician, and I was actually treating him and his children. And he told me, he said, “You have to share your ideas with everybody.” He says, “You need to write a book.” And I said, “I’m really not an author.” He says, “Well, you better be, because this information needs to get out.” He says, “I’m using it in my practice, and it has just changed the way I look at all my patients.” So I said, “Okay, I’m going to go ahead and write the book.” And three years later, I finished the book.
And I have to say, and I’m going to hold this up, I read your book, and I thought it was a wonderful story of a mother raising 2 sons, and from birth up until their 20s, and all the tricks she did during the time you raised them, I thought it was a great book. And I suggest that to everybody too.
Suzy Shaw: Well, I appreciate that. And I guess we both want to share, right? Isn’t that really our knowledge and experience? And so I—
Dr. Hurst: That’s true. That’s true.
Suzy Shaw: So many parents have heard of birth order and that it can shape personality. For listeners who might not be familiar with the idea, what exactly is birth order theory?
Dr. Hurst: Well, it started back, if everyone remembers the stories about Freud and how Freud thought that the children really—it was based a lot on their relationship with their parents. And at that time, in his little local society, he had another fella in there by the name of Alfred Adler. And Adler said, “You know, I don’t think the parents had that much to do with it. I think the brothers and sisters are the reason that the siblings, the different siblings, are so different. It’s really their interrelationships with their siblings.”
And now, Alfred Adler was a number two boy, and Freud was the oldest in his father’s second family. And after that little discussion, they never spoke again. And that was the starting of birth order theory with Alfred Adler, who came to the United States in the 30s and pursued that whole concept. So he said, “It’s your relationship with your siblings that make you who you are.” That’s how it all started.
Suzy Shaw: I am the oldest of 2, and I have a younger brother. I found a lot of what you referred to in the book very relevant to me. Also, my 2 boys that in the book I call Ernest and Exuberance, which is almost a synonym. Right?
Dr. Hurst: I thought that was great.
Suzy Shaw: So, what is the traditional birth order patterns? Firstborn, middle child, youngest, oldest? And are there ways to make the most out of your fate or your child’s fate, if they’re where they fall into that?
Dr. Hurst: Right. Well, the book’s title is “Life’s Fingerprint: How Your Path Goes Throughout Life.” You carry your birth order throughout life. That doesn’t change. And it’s like the unseen radio wave that is running behind your life, your entire life, helping you make decisions and influencing all your decisions. And you may not be aware of it. But if you understand birth order and you understand who you are, you can use those forces for the betterment of your life.
Now, let’s start with the first child that’s born. That’s an only child. That child is very different. It doesn’t relate to any other children. They relate to the parents. So every firstborn child starts their life as an only. And of course, an only child is perfect in every way. And that was you, at least until your brother was born.
So what happens is the only child has a lot of self-confidence because the people that they relate to are parents, another generation older than them. So they’re like little adults. And they can be, well, every birth order has two sides of that. They could be very spoiled as an only child, or they can be little adult-like and very reliable and dependable.
So the only child’s birth order really has a different flavor. All only children have different flavors. It’s the flavor of their parents’ combined birth orders. So, an only child, if he’s raised by a number 1 and a number 2, he has the qualities of ones and twos within his only child. If he’s raised by a number 3, he’d have the qualities of a number 3 related to his only child. It gets a little complicated, but if you start to put the numbers together, it starts to work.
But anyway, when number 1, the only child, becomes a number 1 only when the next child is born. So what happens in number 1? Well, number one’s not very happy about this at all because now she has to share. And number 1 is going to say, “I want to keep this position, by throne, so I am going to be perfect.” So number 1s are very high achievers, and they don’t ever expect to make mistakes. They’re not expected to make a mistake, and they’re very hard on themselves. That would be you. You want to be perfect, and you are so hard on yourself, you don’t allow yourself to make mistakes. You think that’s really bad for your ego if you ever make a mistake.
Number 2’s is a little different. Number 2 comes into this world, and they want to be just the opposite of number 1 because number 1’s got a spot in the family, and number 2 says, “Well, the only thing I want is don’t tell me what to do.” Number 1 says, “I’m in charge,” and number 1 wants to tell number 2 what to do, and number 2 says, “I’m not going to tell you what to do. Don’t tell me what to do.” So they want to control their own space, and they want to be different from number 1.
Number 1 has got a head start in school, so number 1 is really the good student. So number 2 says, “Well, what do I have as a spot? Oh, I’ll be an athlete, so I’ll be the good athlete in the family. I’ll be different. I’ll be special that way.” Because everybody in the family wants to be different and special. And so they have a more outgoing personality.
They can be very competitive. People say, “Number 2 is stubborn.” Number 2 is not stubborn. He just doesn’t want to be told what to do. So there they are. That’s the sibling rivalry that goes on, and we’re going to probably talk about that later. 2 girls, 2 boys, a boy and a girl, a girl and a boy, and they’re all kind of unique, but that’s what goes on in every family, and the sibling rivalry is something you really got to work on.
But then number 3 comes along. Well, number 3 is very… This starts to be… Well, that becomes the baby in the family, but it’s really not the baby, as you’ll see in a minute. But the number 3 has to understand 17 different types of personalities… interrelationships within the family. The mother, the father, the firstborn, the secondborn, the secondborn to the firstborn, they are masters at understanding people. They can be very sensitive, very quiet. They don’t want to let the older siblings know that they’re hurting them when they beat them up because they know they’ll just get more of the same. So they suffer in silence, but they’re educated by the older siblings. I always want to say laughing on the outside, crying on the inside. That’s the number 3, because they’re so sensitive, but they won’t let you know that they’re sensitive. But they’re artistic, creative, they’re sweet, they’re intuitive. They’re like the outdoors. They want to save the world. They see life so differently than 1 and 2. They really do. And actually, they love to play 1 and 2 against each other because they’re so good at relationships, they know exactly what buttons to push.
Then the next kid that comes along is the true baby in the family. That’s number 4. Number 4 really is raised by the older kids because now you’ve divided up the mother and father’s attention over 4 kids. They don’t have any time for the baby. Now, the baby can be really loud. Why? Because no one listens to the baby. So they have to be loud, and they hit on the other kids.
In my practice, when I have a number 4, the number 4, I never see the parents. They’re usually brought in by older siblings. And when number 4 leaves the office, they usually drop their appointment card in the driveway somewhere. They’re not very responsible because older siblings are always taking care of them.
So then, now, if you want to go a little further, with birth order theory, it goes 1, 2, 3, 4, and then starts over again with number 5. Number 5 is like a number 1. And I use the analogy, primary colors and secondary colors. A 5 is like a 1, as a primary color is to a secondary color. It’s just like a 1, except that it’s more subtle. It’s a little smoother. It’s not feeling so much tension as a number 1 does, but they still have those same qualities. Number 6 is like a number 2. And a number 7 is like a number 3, but it’s not quite the same. It’s a little more subtle.
Suzy Shaw: I became very interested in this because my husband is 7th of 9. And his parents had 9 kids in 12 years, and there are 3 years between the last 2. And so when I joined the family, and they would talk about the first family, actually, it was only the older kids that talked like this, but they would describe the first family and the second family. And then the number 9, they called the only child.
And so, only having a brother and marrying into this, it took a while for me to wrap my head around it, but I appreciate and understand what you’re talking about.
Dr. Hurst: Yes, number 9 is another type of number 1, but it’s a third-level number 1. Number 1, number 5, and number 9. And I can see, you see, it’s interesting.
People figured it out without knowing anything about birth order. Every 4 kids were just another family. See, they said, the first family, that was the first four kids. The next 4 kids were another family. And then the next family started, but they only had one kid in it.
Suzy Shaw: Right. (The 9) And they called him the only child because he had the most time with his parents. Right. Because, because of the, well, the quick order of, of kids.
Dr. Hurst: Right. And the rest of them are off at school. Right.
So, you know, most people understand birth order as they get older in life, and they can look back at things and see how people were, you know, when you’re very young, and you’re in your twenties, and so they don’t quite understand the birth order thing because it’s too close to them. And they haven’t been around life long enough to see how people turn out, but everyone seems to find their right spot eventually in, with their birth order.
Suzy Shaw: Right. So how does gender play into this, and what’s the difference between like 2 brothers compared to 2 sisters or a sister and a brother?
Dr. Hurst: Right. Sure. Yeah. That’s, they’re all unique.
Let’s start with 2 sisters. When they’re close in age, in other words, at least within 4 years of each other, you know, 2-3 years, the older sister dominates that younger sister and the younger sister kind of looks up to the older sister for some support and whatever. And she, and the younger, younger sister loves that because she wants to tell the younger sister what to do. And, but younger sister, remember, she’s a 2, and she really doesn’t want to be told what to do.
What I’ve found is this relationship stays that way until number 2 graduates from high school. Then she blossoms into a whole different person, the real person that she wanted to be, because number 1 sister is no longer got her thumb on her, but number 1 sister doesn’t want her… you know, number 1 sister is going to be the valedictorian of the school, but number 2 sister might be on the cheerleading team, or she’s going to be the athlete. Unless number 1 sister slips in school, then number 2 dethrones number 1 sister and becomes the student and number 1 sister becomes the athlete. That’s how you can tell if there’s been a dethroning in a relationship.
Two Brothers Birth Order
Now let’s go to 2 boys. 2 boys are a little different. Why? Well, there’s a lot of testosterone going on here. Tell me about it. That the girls don’t have. and you know, mother of boys, I don’t have to tell you anything about this. So there is all, I mean, they’re going to kill each other.
I mean, if they could, of course, you know, you go back to the Bible with Cain and Abel, and that didn’t work out so well, but number 2 wants to dethrone number 1. And so there you have to look at that very carefully about school and athletics. Who is going to be this, the student? Number 2 wants to knock him off if he can; who’s going to be the athlete? And what I tell people is that whatever you do with your children, especially with 2 boys, don’t let them play the same sport because then you really increase the competitiveness between them. You know, let one of them play baseball, let one of them play basketball, just make them make them special because every kid wants to be special in their own right. So, you know, try to keep the competition down, especially between two boys.
Now, what happens when there’s a girl and her younger brother? Well, we have to look at society, right? This is you. (This is me.) And society says, is this a male-oriented society or is this a female-oriented society? So in a male-oriented society, such as, well, it could be Asian families are very male-oriented. They don’t even count the girls in a birth order. When I talked to them about birth order, in those days we have six kids, and they’re all mentioning the boys. I said, “Were there any girls in the family?” “Oh, yes, they were girls.” “Well, where were they?” “Well, we don’t really count them.” So in an Asian family, the boy, if he’s number 2, he immediately dethrones the number 1 girl, and he doesn’t do anything. He’s just a boy.
But, you know, in our society, it’s kind of 50-50 now. So the boy doesn’t have as much of an edge as he used to. And so he’s going to compete against his older sister. Now, how did that work out in your family? I could see you kept your spot. You were the student.
Suzy Shaw: Well, yeah, my brother was the athlete, an all-American lacrosse player. There you go! And I would tell you, he toughened me up because he pushed me physically and was probably always snapping at my heels. But…
Dr. Hurst: Absolutely. Because he wanted to dethrone you. You just didn’t give him the chance. You held your own.
Suzy Shaw: I did learn how to throw a punch.
Dr. Hurst: Good, good. Now, the other example is a boy first and then the girl. This is a wonderful relationship because the boy is going to protect his younger sister. And she doesn’t see so much about dethroning him because she’s special as the first girl in the family. He doesn’t worry about dethroning because he’s the older boy.
Jimmy Stewart is an example of that. You know, just in life, he was the nicest guy, but he was the oldest one. He had a younger sister. You know, he talked about her too. But there’s an example if that’s… If there could be the nicest example of birth order and how they get together, the older boy and then the number 2 girl. And he’s always looking out for his younger sister, and she’s always looking up to her older brother. So that works out pretty good unless older brother slips and then number 2 girl is going to take that spot. And number 1 boy never recovers after that. You know, once you’re dethroned, it’s tough.
So I hope that answered the question. A lot of your viewers have that situation, boy, girl, girl, boy, and all that.
Suzy Shaw: Right. And I appreciate that in your book, throughout your book, you use people like you just used Jimmy Stewart as an example. You use famous people to help illustrate the personalities, which is really helpful.
Dr. Hurst: I try to give examples of everything. Yes, that was hard. A lot of research went into that. I’m quite certain. A lot of research went into that.
Suzy Shaw: I’m quite certain. So also, in your book, you describe something called double birth order. And could you explain that specifically?
Dr. Hurst: Oh, this is what makes my book unique from any other book on birth order. You see, when I started in my orthodontic practice, I understood I had to understand my kids, my patients, to get their cooperation, especially with brushing their teeth and taking care of their braces and things. And I had to find a tool that I could quickly figure out how to get to each of these kids.
So I started using birth order. It didn’t work. Well, it did work a third of the time. I could get these kids to understand. And two-thirds of the time, it didn’t work. And I was ready just to give it up. And then I went to all my records, and I started looking at all the families and all the kids and all the ages. And I realized two-thirds of all my patients were separated from brothers and sisters by at least four years. And I said, my God, something’s going on here. Something is what’s different about this?
And then I realized they ended up getting a double birth order because they were at home while the older sibling was at school. So they were raised like an only child. So you added all the characteristics of that only child being self-assured, being able to talk with adults. And you add that to the characteristics of their birth order. If a number 2 didn’t want to be told what to do, a 2-only would be an immovable object. This is a strong, strong, strong person.
And that’s what happened. When these kids were separated, they added that only child birth order to their ordinal number and it became 10 times the characteristics of that number. If the 3 was sensitive and whatever, a three only, well, they understand people really well. They become very dramatic. And it’s like, I’m not shy at all. Number 3 is shy and retiring. Number 3 only is look at me, I am here. And like Megan Merkel is a 3-only. She, as we know in her life, she doesn’t make a whole lot of friends, but she sure makes a splash when she’s around. She hasn’t made friends with the royals.
Suzy Shaw: Right. This is true. So I would sort of imagine that would play out the same way if there was a second family involved. So let’s say there were two kids that sort of traditional 1 and 2, and then a split of a couple of years, four years, maybe, and then another child. Does that work the same way?
Dr. Hurst: Yes. You are right on it. That’s the other type of double birth order, because the first one we said that added the only child. But what if we have two families with a spot in between of at least four years? An example of that would be, we’ll go back to the royals, Princess Di. She had two older sisters. Then there was a four-year gap, and she was born. So she was number three. Then two years later, her younger brother was born. This gave her two birth orders. She was the oldest one in the second family and she was the third born. So she was a 3-1, birth order.
Well, with these people, they have two different personalities. Sometimes there are 3, sometimes there are 1. Now I’ll give you a perfect example that we don’t want to get into politics, but we have a President that’s got a double birth order. He’s a 4, which is the baby in the family. The baby in the family says whatever he wants to say. And he’s also a 1. He’s Presidential. He’s in charge. He’s like a number 1. And that’s why he’s a great negotiator, because no one knows what he’s going to be. Is he going to be 1 or is he going to be the 4? So that’s when he wrote the book, Art of the Deal. He doesn’t know why he’s so good at it, but that’s why, because they don’t know who they’re dealing with.
So the double birth order with two numbers is a very different kind of person. His younger brother would be a 4 and a 2. So he’s the baby, but he’s also a two, which says don’t tell me what to do. So if you understand people’s birth orders, all of a sudden, you know who you’re dealing with. And sometimes that’s difficult.
Suzy Shaw: So for families with multiple kids, what would you say is the most helpful thing that parents should keep in mind when they’re managing their family’s dynamics?
Dr. Hurst: Well, the most important thing to understand is that every child wants to be different. And every child is special in some sort of way. And don’t try to make all the kids the same.
You know, I see that in my practice all the time. The first child are very obedient, and they follow all the rules and they do everything great. And the next child is a little different, whatever. And the parent says, why can’t you be like Susie who did everything right? And you say, wait a minute, they don’t want to be like Susie and they want to be their own self. And so treat every child as unique and don’t try to make them all fit the same mold. And then you’re going to have a wonderful happy family.
You know, everybody in the family has a role to play. So you don’t want them playing the same role. And that’s what happens when you have blended families, when you have kids from both families come together. All the kids that go up in birth order by age adapt wonderfully. All the kids that are demoted in birth order because of the marriage and the new two marriages, they have trouble in that marriage, you know, in the new family. So if you get demoted, you don’t like that.
Suzy Shaw: No doubt. I’m quite certain. So, Dr. Bob, you know, how does it work with twins and where they are in the family?
Dr. Hurst: Well, twins take a lot of energy from the family. And most twins will tell you who is the older twin and who is the younger twin. And they will take those birth order positions.
I had a set of twins in my practice where the parents did not tell them who was the older twin. And they were very confused. And they had problems all through their life about who they were. And one day they would be somebody else. And it really had some psychiatric problems because everybody wants to be somebody. And when you’re not told who you are, you don’t know who you are. But the twins will take the spot of the older and the younger. And wherever they are in the birth order chain, if you have two siblings ahead of them, then the twins will be number 3 and number 4. And they will express those same characteristics as a number 3 and a number 4 would in regular birth order.
But I would make this statement: if you have twins, make sure they each know who is older and who is younger. Don’t keep that secret from them.
Suzy Shaw: Hmm. That is so interesting. Thank you. You know, so for moms, especially raising boys, what advice would you give them?
Dr. Hurst: Well, just keep in the back of your mind, Cain and Abel. And when you keep thinking that you say, well, I don’t want to let the competitiveness between my two boys get so strong that they’re going to really hate each other. You want to make them special in their own ways, as you did, you know, Earnest and Exuberance.
I mean, you did a wonderful job as a mother. I mean, you treated those boys, I mean, it was like you read the birth order book because you treated them separate. You treated them as they were different. And you understood that, you know, they were competitive with each other, but yet they ended up liking each other at the very end. So treat them special, but understand what they’re trying to do in the birth order realm, trying to unseat each other, but make them special so they keep their spots.
Suzy Shaw: That’s great. That’s great advice.
Dr. Hurst: That’s what you did. Well, you know, the advice is in your book too.
Suzy Shaw: Well, there’s, there are some things that I did that I just did for necessity, like keeping things equal. Like there is an equality, I think, that parents get hung up on. If I give one child this, I must give the other child that. And I let go of that really early in my parenting journey as unrealistic. And I just tried to give each child what I thought they needed.
Dr. Hurst: Yeah. What number 1 wants is not what number 2 wants. So if you give them equally, number 2 says, “I didn’t want that anyway.” So it doesn’t, the equal thing doesn’t work out. You have to use what’s unique for each child that’s special for them. And that didn’t work. And you did it, you know, and you were successful. So I thought that was great.
Suzy Shaw: Well, thank you. I use a lot of humor in my book, so it’s not the research-based book that you did.
Dr. Hurst: Yes, you did.
Suzy Shaw: So is there anything else you would want to explain before we sort of wrap up this podcast that you don’t think we’ve touched on?
Dr. Hurst: Yes. Most of the birth order books that are out there, they try to make it simple. And I realized early that it wasn’t simple. It’s not just an only. And also they say 1, 2, 3. But it’s not 1, 2, 3. It’s 1, 2, 3, 4. But then, when you add the double birth orders, it’s a 1-only, a 2-only, a 3-only, a 4-only. And then if you add the other ones, you could have a 2-1, a 3-1, a 3-2. There’s probably about 17 different birth orders.
So if someone says, you know, birth order, that’s hooey, that doesn’t work, it’s because they haven’t given it a full look. And most of these books that are out there, they try to make it look too simple. And it isn’t simple. And then they’re going to say it doesn’t work at all. But it works, and it works beautifully once you understand the whole thing.
So I would say, you know, get my book. And not only do we have the book as you showed in hardcover, we also have it as a USB on our website. You can get, if I can hold it up enough, you can go and get Life’s Fingerprint. Let’s see if we can get it up there. Right there. There we go. And you just plug that little thing into your computer. But I really suggest get the color copy that get off the website, because it’s a coffee table book and everybody comes for Thanksgiving dinner is going to want to look up their birth order. And it’s great conversation. And, you know, you won’t have any fights at Thanksgiving dinner.
Suzy Shaw: Well, I appreciate it. The charts and illustrations, and I’m a visual person. And so that really, you know, helped me understand what you were getting at with the way you were breaking it down and then add on the social part of it with people that we know, you know, famous people.
Dr. Hurst: Right. Right. Yeah. Hopefully that’s good. Thank you.
Suzy Shaw: So at the end of every program, I ask our guests to give moms sort of a quote or a thought or a guiding phrase or something that they can say to themselves as they’re trying to figure out, you know, the multiple children scenario with birth order. What would you say to maybe the parents of your patients during those moments?
Dr. Hurst: Well, this is easy because also you’ll find on our website, we have T-shirts. And so I would say if you have an only child, keep in mind that Superman was an only child. That’s what we have on the T-shirt. If you have a number 1, the T-shirt says, “I want to be in charge.” So think about your child always want to be in charge. Number 2 says, “Don’t tell me what to do.” Okay. The number 3 would say, “I feel your pain.” The most sensitive they are. And number 4, if you have a number four says, “I don’t want to grow up.” So, you know, that’s the baby.
So if you use those common words, then you see your child in that light, then you can make everything special for that child and he won’t drive you crazy, which it could.
Suzy Shaw: And that too will pass, right? Yes, it will. They will grow up. So yeah, even Peter Pan, number 4.
Dr. Hurst: Can I ask you a question?
Suzy Shaw: Sure.
Dr. Hurst: In your husband’s family, was the oldest and the fifth a girl?
Suzy Shaw: Let’s see. I’m going to have to go backward. So it’s Mary Ellen, Jane, Bob, Kath, Carl. Carl is, so Mary Ellen’s a girl. Carl’s…
Dr. Hurst: Number 1 was a girl?
Suzy Shaw: Yeah, number one’s a girl. Number 5 is a boy. And then…
Dr. Hurst: Number 9?
Suzy Shaw: Number 9 is a boy. So there were five girls and four boys.
Dr. Hurst: Okay. Well, your husband’s a number 7. He’s number seven. He’s the 3rd of the 4 boys. Right. Which makes him a 3. But he had the oldest sister was a girl, number 1. That’s you. He understands you better than you understand him because you didn’t have a number 3 or 7, a 3 boy in your family. So he sees you as he saw his oldest sister and he understands that position. So he has a leg up on understanding you, but you have, you don’t quite understand him like he understands you.
Suzy Shaw: I’ll give you that.
Dr. Hurst: Think about that. I always say that’s true. But if you match your childhood birth order, it’s a type of love at first sight because when he saw you, he understood you right away. And for him, it was very, very comfortable. Okay. So that was love at first sight. You’re not going to get rid of him. He’s there forever.
Suzy Shaw: I know it. We’re both in it for the long haul.
Dr. Hurst: That’s right. That’s right.
Suzy Shaw: Well, Dr. Bob, I really appreciate your discussion about this and also the marital advice. And I want to tell our listeners that I will have links to Dr. Bob’s book and the materials on his website and to his website on the mothersofboys.life website and the show notes.
So please check them out, and thank you for joining. If this episode meant something to you, please follow and share the Mothers of Boys Survival Guide podcast on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn. Sharing helps other moms discover the show. Be kind to yourself, moms.
