Life as the Oldest

Being the oldest is not easy, as I have been told by others, and have experienced for myself. For example, today is kind of my last day of break and what did I have to do? I had to wake up at 8:30 to babysit Sophie. Ok, so it's not that early, but considering I haven't been waking up until 10:30 over break, that's extremely early! Also, there is no peace and quite. For example, while I'm trying to write this, Sophie is leaning over my shoulder yelling "I see picture! I see picture!" I may have lost hearing in one ear and lost my train of thought. There are a lot of good things about being the oldest, but also a lot of challenges. And when I mean challenges, I mean challenges for me to keep my mouth shut, etc. My sisters call me the "other mom". Sorry, I can't help that I see you misbehaving and Mom isn't around to see it! Recently I took a personality test online that only had pictures. For example, there was a series of pictures with animals on them and you had to pick which one you thought you were most like. It was very interesting to see the results. I got 100% introvert, which I knew I was and Rhea on the other hand got 100% extrovert. We are very opposite. That's another challenge for me, because I get home from work at around 5:30-6:30 and my sisters are all excited to see me and tell me about their day and I just want to go down to my room and be by myself, because I have been around people all day! Sometimes I wonder how I am going to be able to deal with kids all day long, when I can barely deal with adults at work. Back to being the oldest. One thing that my sisters get really annoyed with is, my wanting everything to be fair. A lot of times they get to get or do things earlier than I ever did, and I just think that it's not fair. Like, Rhea and I had to share my first phone, and then when I got a phone, she did too, and she got a better one than me. Now how is that fair? I don't know, I'm not a parent. I'm sure one day I'll be the blamed parent for not being fair. Oh, and by the way, I'm not still holding a grudge against the whole phone deal:) That was probably 4-5 years ago. It gets a lot better as I get older, but it's still difficult to keep my mouth shut when something unfair comes up. Being the oldest, is also hard, because you are a "guinea pig". Kind of let's first try it on this child, and if it works out, we'll let the others do it younger than her. How I see it, my parent's don't know how much freedom to give me or what decisions to let me make on my own. How my parent's see it, I don't really know how they see it honestly. Another reason being the oldest is hard, is trying to explain why you have a carseat in your backseat and a stroller in your trunk and a fairy book on the ground and a barbie buckled into to your seat. The only answer I can come up with is, "I'm the oldest". Another problem that comes up quite frequently when I am shopping with Mom is that Sophie or Tessa gets antsy so I take them off somewhere away from my mom resulting in people telling my baby is so cute and how old is she and she looks just like her mom. Well considering Sophie and her "mom"have the same parents, I'm not surprised they look alike:) I don't even try to explain anymore. Let them think I'm Sophie and Tessa's mom. I guess I act like it sometime. It is hard as my sisters keep getting older, because I can see them getting things way before I do, such as, Rhea getting a car before I did(I had to wait a year after I got my license, which resulted in riding the bus everyday to school.) Honestly, I bet Claire hasn't rode the bus 10 times since being at public school. No matter, how much I complain about being the oldest, I don't think I would give it up for anything. I bet that I can change a baby's diaper faster than anyone my age and dominate a carseat strapping contest. Hope you all have a great rest of your week, and enjoy the place you have in your family.