Common traits of babies: secure in their place in the family, relatively free from parental expectations, relaxed.
Royal babies: Prince Edward, Prince William and Kate's upcoming third child.
What we can learn from them: As the youngest child grows up, parents may be less concerned about the child's achievements and more focused on enjoying the last experience with a baby in the family. Like other laterborns, the babies get more freedom from strict parental expectations. But unlike middle children, they might not struggle with finding their place in the family. "While babies of the family face fewer expectations, they still have a more clearly defined role than middles," says Salmon.
As the youngest child grows up, parents may be less concerned about the child's achievements and more focused on enjoying the last experience with a baby in the family.
Queen Elizabeth had four children, and Prince Edward is the baby — 15 years younger than his eldest sibling Prince Charles. Unlike his brothers, Prince Edward turned down a military career (the tradition of royal men) and instead pursued work in theater and television. After mixed success, Edward left the media industry to focus on his royal duties full-time. Now ninth in line to the throne, Edward leads a relatively low-key life for a royal. He married public relations executive Sophie Rhys-Jones in 1999 in a private ceremony, not in a large public royal wedding. Upon marriage he took the lesser title of Earl rather than Duke, breaking again from custom for sons of the monarch. Edward's ability to carve out his own path shows that babies in the family often have more freedom. Might we expect the same from the yet-to-be-born Baby Cambridge?
