Lisette Schuitemaker Book order

An exploration of the self-fulfilling lives of people who, by chance or choice, have no children of their own

Reading this book, you get the sense that Lisette Schuitemaker sees right through you. As if she knows that you gorge on chocolate at times, that you go crazy if people know something you don’t, that you are bound to hit the slow cashier one day. Or that in truth you’re not here at all with your thoughts. And how ardently you hope that one day someone will truly love you the way you are. You, me, all of us have drawn some conclusions in our childhood: impressions we got as a young child and the conclusions we jumped to about ourselves, the world and our place in it. These childhood conclusions still produce habitual thoughts that mark our behaviors. “Why didn’t I know this before and why don’t we all know this?’ were the questions that prompted the author to share her insights. Illustrated with examples from her private practice she shows how childhood conclusions are at work in all of us--and how we can turn them around into a positive outlook on ourselves and others. The five childhood conclusions tell you exactly what you think about yourself. And how you could think differently. And gain so much more freedom for living your life. This book is for anyone who is curious where their habitual thoughts arise from.

"What do Angela Merkel, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Christine Lagarde, Oprah Winfrey, Sheryl Sandberg, JK Rowling and Beyoncé have in common?" was the headline in the English newspaper The Observer in 2014. "Other than riding high in Forbes list of the world’s most powerful women," journalist Tracy McVeigh wrote in answer to her own question, "they are also all firstborn children in their families. Firstborn children really do excel." So what does it mean to be an eldest daughter? Firstborns Lisette Schuitemaker and Wies Enthoven set out to discover the big five qualities that characterize all eldest daughters to some degree. Eldest daughters are responsible, dutiful, thoughtful, expeditious and caring. Firstborns are more intelligent than their siblings, more proficient verbally and more motivated to perform. Yet at the same time they seriously doubt that they are good enough. Being an eldest daughter can have certain advantages, but the overbearing sense of responsibility often gets in the way. Parents may worry about their ‘difficult’ eldest girl who wants to be perfect in everything she does whilst her siblings may not always understand her. "The Eldest Daughter Effect" shows how firstborn girls become who they are and offers insights that can give them more freedom to move. And parents will gain a better understanding of their firstborn children and can support them more fully on their way.