Being the oldest sibling out of the bunch can have its perks; you can boss your younger siblings around while they’re young and watch them grow up into wonderful people. But helping raise those little heathens is no easy feat and being the oldest comes with a lot more downfalls than you’d expect.

The most obvious downside of being the oldest is that you’re the guinea pig child for your parents. They learn how to parent properly through you, which can create a lot of animosity towards your younger siblings that were raised under the perfected parenting style. 

You’re a built-in babysitter, and you don’t get paid. I’ve been watching my brother Caden since I was nine. Whether it was date night, an event or a work thing, we never hired a babysitter. 

Instead of living my best life, drinking chocolate milk and watching Scooby Doo from the couch, I was forced to entertain a toddler for hours on end. If you’ve ever met a toddler, you know their attention span is short, and if you’ve ever met a nine-year-old, you know their patience is even shorter.

This led to a lot of arguments and fights between my brother and I, usually ending with me getting in trouble for making him cry. This was completely unfair, since he always asked for it and it wasn’t my fault that he was so much smaller than me. 

When my little sister was born, I was 15, meaning I could help more, not that I wanted to. What 15-year-old wants to spend their Friday nights feeding bottles to a baby and changing diapers? 

If I was paid, it would’ve been a different story, but when you’re the oldest, your parents just expect you to drop everything to watch their kid. It’s ridiculous if you ask me.

It wasn’t all bad, babies are cute, and my sister was the cutest baby I had ever seen. But boy, did she test me every time I tried to put her to bed!

As soon as I was able to drive, I became the errand girl. We live about 15-20 minutes from town so whenever dinner, groceries or my younger siblings needed to be picked up, guess who got to make that almost hour-long drive? Why, the oldest of course! 

Being the oldest means being a kid but acting like an adult. You grow up fast and learn responsibility quickly.

After my mother passed away when I was 12, I took on most of the laundry, the dishes and the house cleaning. My brother was too young to be much help, so it all got thrown on me. 

It felt like I had been turned into a part-time parent and teacher, trying to navigate the transformation from childhood to semi-adulthood. 

The worst part was that all the crap I went through with my siblings turned me off completely to the idea of ever having my own children, because I felt like I had raised enough! 

Being the oldest may have taught me to be responsible, but it also took away a lot of the fun childhood I thought I deserved, which probably explains why I’m still such a kid at heart.