5 WHYZ,  Parenting

5 Reasons Why The Younger Sibling Gets The Better Deal

Being the eldest child, I have long suspected that I got the rough deal. I was after all, the ‘first’ – the practice baby, the “we don’t know what the fuck we’re doing baby” , if you will. My younger sibling was always somehow freer. Free of being told to act her age, free from the responsibility of setting the example. Free to run wild from all that parental micro managing that happens with the first.

I always had to wait for everything.

I wasn’t allowed to have my ears pierced until I was 10 years old, I wasn’t allowed further than the shops or I always had to phone/text when I got to someones house . When I got older I wasn’t allowed boyfriends to sleep over in my room and if I went out I always had to be back by 11pm.

By the time my younger sister reached these milestones, two and a half years later the rules seemed to have either been modified or entirely fucking dissolved. It wasn’t that she could do whatever she wanted but more that my parents were more relaxed about setting her rules. Which is ironic really because I was and still am the one who caused less trouble..

You see, I had been their trial run and now she reaped the benefits of my good behaviour.

Of course my younger sibling may well disagree and I’m sure there are plenty of points to be made on why being the youngest child sucks balls. But alas this is my website and I’m an older sibling, so there!

The reason I bring this up anyway, is that I now have two children with a four year age gap between them and I am starting to understand why my parents did things the way they did.

Our youngest has just turned one and has begun to interact more with her brother and their toys and so on. Being the older sibling myself I am particularly sensitive to our first child on this subject and vowed to make sure he wouldn’t feel the ‘weight’ of being the older kid as I had done.

Thing is though, he already does and I can’t really see my way around it.

He too has to wait for everything. He has to wait for his little sister to stop crying, he has to wait for her to finish her breakfast, he has to wait whilst I finish dressing her before I can help him with his shoes.

He must wait by the door while I put her in the pram. He must wait for his turn and let her go first. He must wait for his turn of my attention, he must wait whilst we deal with whatever melodrama she is creating at any given moment.

No one tells his younger sister to wait. She doesn’t wait for a damn thing.

So here’s 5 Reasons Why The Younger Sibling Gets The Better Deal

  1. Parents are easier on you either because your older sibling blazed a good trail or because they are exhausted by their antics and have less energy left to micro manage you!
  2. You are fucking spoiled yes you are, because you are the baby. This doesn’t necessarily mean with material things but just spoiled for being the littlest.
  3. You have an older sibling so you can watch what they do first and figure out your move with evidence based intelligence.
  4. You aren’t responsible for anyone else, you aren’t told too look after your sibling or to set a good example for them.
  5. You can cry for no reason to get your sibling in trouble and 100% of the time, 100% of the room are gonna believe you first!

Anyone fancying writing a younger sibling counter argument – drop me an email HQ@5WHYZ.com

photo credit: Luis Alvarez Marra Stap via photopin (license)
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