1. When you get into a disagreement with your younger sibling, where you are justified, but your parents tell YOU to apologize. Saying that you, the older sibling, need to be the bigger person.

2. I am old enough to remember how things really were, but my sister and brother believe the rewritten version.

3. Bearing the brunt of parents’ stress and being an unpaid therapist.

4. The leniency given to the younger siblings… as the oldest you’re basically the guinea pig for your parents so it’s usually easier for the younger ones.

5. I hated being treated a lot older then I actually was, had so much more responsibility, was treated like a parent and rarely felt like I was a child.

6. The shit you get when the middle sibling gets engaged, buys a house, and has a baby before you do.

7. My older brother told me his whole life, he hated the fact that whenever he made a mistake he was a big disappointment to our parents, but when the rest of us made the same mistake later, our parents were already pretty much over it.

8. I guess not having someone to turn to for help that will always be there. When my younger brother started in high school he had no friends and so hung out with me and my friends until he made some of his own. When I started high school I had no one for the longest time.

9. Being the executor of our parents’ wills.

10. Being constantly snitched on.

11. The pressure to always be fine. Always be ok. There was very little room for me to ever not be anything but put together and composed. I’ve had to have my shit together since I was like 8. I learned long ago to not ask for help.

12. Everything was always my fault, always. Even if it wasn’t me that did it, it was still somehow my fault.

13. Being forced to attend every major family event so parents could compare whose kids were more successful.

14. The freakin’ pressure. Always felt like I had to be the best, and when I wasn’t it was a kick to the self esteem.

Hell, I STILL feel like that. I need to learn to be okay with who I am instead of trying to out-best my siblings.

15. Hearing the fucking “You are his hero” speech from your parents. I don’t know why I hate that so much, am I the only one?

16. The fact that sometimes ‘normal younger sibling behavior’ solidifies into their actual adult personalities, and everyone else shrugs it off. Boy, is it so much fun to deal with grown-ass adult human beings who insult you to your face constantly and everyone shrugs it off.

17. I get compared to soooo many people in the family. It’s the worst thing ever.

“Why is he so taller than you when he is the youngest?”

“Why are you the way you are? Be more like him…”

Like being the oldest child means that you MUST possess the qualities of a perfect adult even if you aren’t at that point in life yet.

18. I made all the mistakes of growing up that my brother got to learn from without having to live with the consequences. Even as an adult, my brother purposely waited for me to go to professional school, to get married, and to have kids before he attempted each of these several years later, when he could have easily done all of these things before I did.

19. I had to buy everything on my own. Game Boy, laptop, car…

20. Unpaid babysitting for hours on end.

21. I was grown and out of the house and suddenly my parents were spending more money on activities and vacations.

22. Apparently me, an older siblings is meant to set example for my younger siblings, why? I didn’t have children, all I did was got in trouble for shit they did.

23. Being left “in charge”, but without any actual authority. So when my brothers fucked up, I was also to blame, even though I couldn’t do anything to have stopped them. I was supposed to be “watching” them, but that’s all I was allowed to do. I could tell them to stop breaking the rules, sure. They wouldn’t listen, and that was also my fault.

24. Nothing was ever the younger ones fault. It was always my fault because I was “older and should know better”. So every fight he started I got in trouble for. Even when I didn’t reciprocate the actions.

25. Being the third parent – I have to take a lot from my parents about my siblings and give a ton of advice.

26. Being the test dummy for rules in my teenage years.

27. All the responsibility without the authority or privileges that should come with that responsibility.

28. I remember having to “help” my younger siblings with their homework which really meant doing it for them.

29. Knowing more about my parents than my siblings ever will or understand.

30. Having to beat hard bosses and levels for my younger siblings. Learn to play you scrub.