I am an oldest child. I happen to be eight years older than my brother and I definitely felt the weight of being the eldest. Sometimes it's great because you get to do things that your younger sibling can't and sometimes it sucks because of so many reasons I can hardly count. Having been the older sibling, now I get to witness the phenomenon from my eldest child's perspective. She's only two and a half years older than her sister, but older is older and especially in these very young years, that time span makes a huge difference. It's true that we expect more of her because she is older. As an oldest child myself, I also have a soft spot for some of her predicaments and I also identify with so much of what she does and really do believe that even if it is stereotypical to say so, there are definitely signs that you are dealing with an oldest child.
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Some of the oldest child signs are funny, but some of them are truly endearing. Check out what I have observed in the laboratory of my family setting.
- No matter what you tell your eldest even if it is something they have never heard, they answer, "I know!"
- She thinks she's the boss of her little sister.
- She gets really mad when her little sister doesn't let her be the boss.
- She calls their shared bedroom "her" bedroom as in, "Get out of my bedroom!"
- If she gets a treat, she always wants to get one for her sister too.
- When her little sister does something for the very first time, she gets so excited she could burst.
- She does not appreciate time outs for herself, but thinks you should be giving her younger sibling more time outs.
- She talks to her little sister in baby talk and can translate her sister's baby talk to any adult who can't understand it.
- She likes scaring her sister so that she can console her.
- She keeps an eagle eye on her sister whenever they are out together because nobody, but nobody better mess with her kid sister. Except her, of course.
It's tough being an oldest child, but it's also kind of AWESOME!
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