Why do children from the same family who grow up in the same home seem to react and see things from a different perspective?
I have always wondered about that fact myself! I have five children. Two are from a first marriage and three are from a second marriage. My children all are as unique as snowflakes! They react differently under stress, have differing leadership abilities, are more out going or less outgoing, and even vary in food likes and dislikes!
The old nature vs. nurture debate comes to mind as I ponder that fact. There are times when my children do things and respond to things just like their biological fathers even though they have never spent a great deal of time with their fathers. I see that their nature (genes from their father) has an influence on their temperament and things such as the inflection is their voices and facial expression. They also act and respond to things exactly as I would! Ironically though, of my two oldest children, my son seems to have gotten more of my genes, while my daughter seems to take after her biological father!
I find it amazing that the aggression that is in my first husband's nature was passed onto my children, but rather than using it negatively, my kids have thrived. David is a wonderful leader and Amanda is self driven and outspoken! My other three inherited my second husband's athletic ability and are absolutley magnificent little hockey players! The fact that they are great hockey players gives them self confidence.
When you combine nurture with the cards that children are dealt in nature, you get a completely unique and wonderful individual. I am thankful that nurture seems to override nature in most instances; so in response to the above question, nature (rolling the genetic dice by mixing parental personality attributes) plays a huge role in why our children can all turn out differently. However, in my brief and humble experience, nurture can replace or override most instances of a child's nature.
I have so many hypotheses why children turn out completely unique that it would be impossible to list them all here!
