You can't win for losing

"New research from Brigham Young University shows that first-born children get about 3,000 more hours of quality time with their parents between ages 4 and 13 than the next sibling gets when they pass through the same age range.

The study provides a possible explanation for why older children tend to get more education, make more money and score higher on IQ tests. BYU economics professor Joseph Price conducted the analysis, which appears in the new issue of the Journal of Human Resources.

'We’ve known for a long time that eldest children have better outcomes, and these findings on quality time provide one explanation why,' said Price"

Here's to hoping that "3,000 more hours of quality time" can compensate for continually overreacting to what turned out to be just one more "normal childhood phase," for picking the wrong fights, for having inappropriate expectations and for treating him too old too early and too young for too long.

And to my second child,

sorry if your IQ scores turn out lower or if your income suffers in the future

but look at the bright side -

you won't be paying for therapy.