The youngest of the family is always viewed as the "luckiest" sibling, the brat of the family, or the one who always has it easiest. While this may be partially true, I, the youngest of three girls am here to tell you why being the youngest has its ups and downs just like any other sibling of the family!
For starters, I'm sure whatever role you play in your family it has its pros and cons. In society, the youngest child of the family is typically always made out to have it the best. I think these misconceptions came from bitter older siblings, but I digress.
I will say that being the youngest can be lots of fun! For one, if you have pretty nice older siblings like I do, you pretty much have your own personal entertainment for your childhood. Your older siblings are the ones that make sure you have fun and get into trouble while doing it!
I will also admit that not as much responsibility falls on you as it would the oldest or even a middle child. For obvious reasons, this is definitely a perk to being the youngest.
But don't get me wrong ladies and gentleman. Being the youngest has its down sides as well. For one, you can be 80 years old and your parents would still throw the "you're the youngest, so you can't do that yet" card at you.
My guess is that parents do this just to please the oldest sibling who wasn't able to do certain things when they were that age, but this practice most certainly gets annoying when the family babies you (even in your late teenage years) just because you're the youngest of the family.
Thought that was the only down side? Wait, there's more! Not only is the answer "no" for a lot of things because you're the youngest, you also have this grand expectation you have to live up to thanks to your older siblings. People expect you to go to the same high school and college as your older siblings, to have the same talents (such as singing, which was given to both of my older siblings and then just jumped right over me!), to have the same type of personality and so on and SO ON!
I think the high expectations may be the most difficult thing about being the youngest, trying to show people that you're your own person and you may not be into the same things you're siblings are into.
In the midst of the swirling vortex of youngest sibling confusion, I found that being the youngest is just another skill waiting to be mastered.
Which is why I make sure to scare and prank my family as much as possible, keep the youthfulness in the family when everyone starts talking about boring stuff like taxes, and get my siblings excited over the little things like 90's cartoon reruns!
Like I said, being the youngest has its ups and downs. What you do with your gift of being the youngest is completely up to you. I decided to try and make it as much fun as possible each and everyday!
