Some call it a curse while others see it as a blessing but however way you see it, being the oldest sibling in your family comes with pros and cons.
From your parents expecting you to always be the responsible one who knows better to having the privilege of bossing around your siblings, below are some things every first child in a family can relate to.
1. You have to hide your things: Are you sure you had younger siblings if you didn’t have to hide your necessities? Younger ones can be quite the pain in the neck as they are always snooping around your things. From trying to read you diary, go through your chats and text messages to “borrowing” clothes, accessories, and books (or any number of things), younger siblings always felt a sense of entitlement to your stuffs.
2. You got followed around: As the older sibling, your younger ones look up to you so it is only natural that they are not contented with just borrowing your stuffs without asking, they also wanted your friends. Are you really an older sibling if you haven’t had a little brother or sister tag along with you no matter what you’re doing? Infuriatingly enough, your parents allowed it to happen, and probably sometimes even encouraged it.
3. The guinea pig child: As the first child of your parents, you were their experiment at learning how to be good parents so inadvertently, they are stricter with you than they are with your younger ones. You got all the tough rules and guidelines to follow. Most parents get less strict with their younger children, and that will always feel incredibly unfair.
4. The responsible one: With great power comes great responsibility but in your case as the oldest child, it is with being the first comes greater expectations. Your parents always expected you to “know better” than your younger siblings.They took sides with your younger ones during a fight and you are told to grow up and act more mature since you are the older one. You also had to play the role of substitute parent for the times your parents were not around and expected to always set a good example.
5. The bossy sibling: Another negative side effect of being expected to be the responsible one? Your younger siblings will constantly call you “bossy.” And you know what? Maybe you are! Can anyone really blame you when you were essentially groomed to be that way?
6. The jealous child: Who can blame you for feeling jealous of your younger ones in their early years. One minute your parents dotted on you and the next minute another child comes along and gets all the love. Every oldest child got at least one year of exclusive love before it became shared.
7. You love and protect them no matter what: No matter how annoying or troublesome you younger ones are, you love them anyways. As corny as it sounds, you’re blessed to have each other, and you know it. It doesn’t matter you tell your friends or whoever cares to listen about how much of a pest your siblings can be, you’ll probably bite off their head if they pic a fight with your sibling.
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