Raise your hand if you have ever been personally victimized as the youngest child. *hand extends to the sky*
I am the youngest of four; two brothers and one sister. I have been called and told every stereotype that goes with being the youngest. Spoiled, favorite, privileged, immature, baby – you name it. I’m not going to argue, I was (at one point) all of those things but what people don’t get is that it doesn’t stick with you forever. There is a six year age gap between my sister and I. There is an even bigger gap of FIFTEEN YEARS between my oldest brother and I. He went to college when I was two – people thought he was my dad… Being the youngest has its perks but it is definitely not as awesome as everyone thinks it is. There are many major downfalls of being the youngest, if I am being honest.
When people think of the youngest child, the first two common responses are “you’re so lucky” or “I bet you get everything you want”. Everyone automatically assumes that every child who is the youngest is the most spoiled child, the favored one, or the privileged one because they didn’t have to work for things their siblings had to, the one that gets away with whatever they want… the list goes on. What many people don’t see is that with being the youngest there is an overwhelming, constant comparison to your siblings, there is an expectation to do great, to be more responsible, nothing we do is new and exciting, family members RARELY take you seriously, and we are constantly being treated like a child. Many may think those are just little things but it weighs heavily on the youngest.
I can speak from personal experience when I say that all the rewards of being the youngest lasted only a short while and ended quickly as I got older. The huge age gap between my siblings and I only made things worse. Even as my siblings grew up and left the house, I was still being compared to them. I was still being yelled at to be more responsible. Everything I did was never as novel to my parents because they have already seen it. Even though I was now the oldest sibling in the house, I was still treated like a baby.
Comparisons between siblings happen all the time, but I think that the youngest gets the bulk of it. “Well your brother got this grade, so why didn’t you?”, “Your sister got a dancing part in the musical, why didn’t you?”.
The worst thing about being the youngest, in my opinion, is constantly being seen as immature and never being taken seriously. While I am still okay with my family nickname, I am not okay with still being treated like a 6-year old. I, especially, don’t like when sentences start off with, “When I was your age….” or, one of my favorite, “you’re too young/don’t understand what we are talking about”. The youngest child often feels like when they hold conversations with older family members, they are never taken seriously because everyone constantly makes them feel inferior. Even when they are on the same intelligence level and same education level, there is a distinct difference in communication. In my family, I am seen as the goofy one because that seems to be the only way I could get into communication or even attention from the family for what seems like forever.
I wouldn’t trade my siblings and family for anything, we all have our own quirks and qualities and I love them for that. Though there are many negatives of being the youngest, my favorite positive is knowing I always have someone to look up to or have my back if anything happened… and knowing I’ll still look good when they are old and grey.