Chronicles Of The Youngest Child

Having siblings can be bittersweet period. Whether you’re the oldest, youngest or middle, there are downfalls. The oldest always gets credit for having “the hardest job,” which can be true. Older siblings have to sacrifice plans to take care of us younger siblings, they get blamed for almost everything, and as the youngest, we tend to take up a lot of attention. All of those things are true but being the youngest can suck too.

When you’re the youngest, chores almost always get passed down to you. 

When I first started contributing to the chores in my house, one of the first things that I learned how to do was clean the bathroom. Admittedly, it was a chore that my older sister had been doing for years and it was time for me to pay up. But, the task of cleaning the bathroom was supposed to fall to me every other week. Somehow though, it didn’t. Every single week I found that I was cleaning the bathroom for whatever reason. My sister went out, she was cleaning the room, or, my personal favorite, she’d be moving out soon so the task would fall to me anyway. I’m sorry, that’s fair? And that’s just the bathroom! I’m not even counting all the times she’s asked me to wash dishes or do something else that she didn’t want to do. Older siblings often take advantage of the fact that we’re there and so we get the stuff that they don’t feel like doing.

When you’re the youngest, you never get the chance to show that you’re growing up.

This is a huge one for me. My sisters are 10 and 12 years older than me so clearly they went through things way before I did. The problem with that is your big sister always comes in to “save the day.” Don’t get me wrong, sometimes I’m grateful for that because sometimes I just can’t handle it. But there are times when I want to show that I can handle it. I want to prove that I can do whatever task that I’m entrusted with. But my parents would much rather see one of my older siblings do it. I almost never get to show that I’m mature and responsible because my sisters swoop in and take over.

As the youngest you fall victim to rules that have nothing to do with you.

I don’t know where this “the rules don’t apply to the youngest child” thing came from, but it’s not true. Case in point, there is a rule in my house that I can’t have my phone at night. This rule was there ever since I got a phone, why? Because my older sister used to get in trouble for being on her phone at all hours of the night. Another example, one day I got in trouble because my parents thought I had someone in the house without them being there. Why? Because my older sister did it first. She got in trouble for doing all of these things like bringing electronics to school. Now who pays the price? Me.

Don’t get me wrong. I wouldn’t trade having older siblings for the world. They give me great advice, provide me with hilarious stories, and would defend me like an army of 20 soldiers.

They even provide the occasional sanctuary for when my parents are driving me up the wall not to mention the cute clothes (hello hand me downs). But I just wanted to clear the air and say that being the youngest is not all it’s cracked up to be.