{"id":4593,"date":"2026-06-01T13:02:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T13:02:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/01\/parents-are-softer-on-younger-siblings\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T13:02:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T13:02:13","slug":"parents-are-softer-on-younger-siblings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/01\/parents-are-softer-on-younger-siblings\/","title":{"rendered":"Parents are softer on younger siblings"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>2026-06-01 13:02:11<\/b><br \/>\n<BR>Parents really do go easier on younger children.<BR><br \/>\nScientists found later-born children face fewer rules, spend more time on screens and are less likely to experience strict expectations compared to their older brothers and sisters.<BR><br \/>\nThe study, led by Monash University and published in the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organisation, examined the lives of around 5,000 children aged between two and 15.<BR><br \/>\nResearchers analysed how youngsters spent their time, grouping activities into categories including school, physical exercise, enrichment activities and digital media.<BR><br \/>\nEnrichment activities covered homework, reading, music lessons and board games, while digital media included television, video games, internet use and social media.<BR><br \/>\nThe results showed second and third-born children spent between nine and 14 extra minutes per day using screens compared to first-borns.<BR><br \/>\nExperts believe parental leniency is the key reason.<BR><br \/>\nThe study said: &#8220;The increase in digital media time for later-born children is largely driven by those activities that children do alone.<BR><br \/>\n&#8220;We show that one possible explanation for this is that parents are more lenient with later-born children.<BR><br \/>\n&#8220;Parents are less likely to have rules around TV watching and video games for later-born children, and later-born children themselves are less likely to perceive that their parents expect them to follow rules.&#8221;<BR><br \/>\nThe findings echo a familiar storyline often seen in films and TV.<BR><br \/>\nResearchers pointed to the Bridgerton family, where eldest son Anthony (Jonathan Bailey) shoulders heavy responsibilities while younger brother Benedict (Luke Thompson) enjoys far greater freedom to pursue his passions.<BR><br \/>\nTime diaries completed by children and parents revealed that as later-born youngsters grow older, the rules appear to loosen even further.<BR><br \/>\nResearchers said: &#8220;We find that parents become more lenient with rules for later-born children when they are older which corresponds with older later-born children spending more time with digital media.&#8221;<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/\" target=\"_blank\"> Visit Bang Bizarre (main website) <\/a><br \/>\n<br \/><script src=\"https:\/\/geo.dailymotion.com\/player\/xtbac.js\" data-video=\"\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>2026-06-01 13:02:11 Parents really do go easier on younger children. Scientists found later-born children face fewer rules, spend more time on screens and are less likely to experience strict expectations&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4594,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bizarre"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4593"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4593\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4595,"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4593\/revisions\/4595"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}