The Official Life Cycle of Older Sibilings

I'm the baby of the family, the youngest (of two).  My brother got in four good years before I came along.  He didn't know how good it was until I came around, and completed the family (it's true, I did).

*Please note I am using brother as the older sibling, 

but the time line holds true for most all older siblings regardless of gender.

The day I was born, I'm sure my brother felt like this.

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 Except, I'm sure my four year old brudder (that's how I said it when I was little), 

loved me dearly, or at least I hope so. Please note he loves me unconditionally, he loves me, I'm his best friend.

Being an older brother comes with lots of responsibilities, like paying me 'not to tell Mom and Dad', using me as an excuse for anything broken, damaged, or dirty,  and putting my life in danger (see below, yes we've done that!!!).

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But I guess 'big brotherhood' comes with 'invisible' responsibilities as well.

Like teaching/leading by example, helping the younger one (that's me) with anything and everything, and giving advice on all sorts of life 'topics'.  His job is bigger than I thought.  If there's one thing I know for sure, I couldn't do it.

To them (the older sibling) our jobs seem 'easy', 

this is what they think being the baby of the family is like,

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but they're wrong.

Sure, we might be coddled or 'spoiled' in ways that you weren't, but we had to spend our precious childhood being dragged around to your events (for years) before we got to do our own things (You'd be surprised how many games you can make up underneath the bleachers at the little league fields), getting hand me down blue boys bikes (that I pimped out with pink stickers, don't worry about it), or being compared to the 'first one' (truth be told, my parents never compared us, in their eyes we are two successful individuals, but you last children know the feeling I am talking about we'll always see ourselves as 'compared' to the other(s)). 

But big brother did always have had a higher GPA, cleaner driving record, and a more calm, cool, and collected demeanor than myself; for this I love and envy you all at the same time.  I'll blame your perfection and responsibility on your first child-ness.  Clearly if I were the first child, I'd be just like you (Not).

Then they leave the house and us youngest-ers (I just made that up) are like 'Yes'!!!!

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Now we don't have to share the 'spotlight' with the anyone.

That's cool for a about (point) two seconds until we realize all eyes are on us (and it sucks, in my case it really didn't suck, but I'm sure it could suck), and we have to watch our every move. 

And our every move is 'watched'.

And then we're like...

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It's just not the same without you (even though I used to complain about always being compared to you and it drove me nuts)-- it's less fun without you.

And this is how I feel the life cycle of most older siblings goes, give or take a thing or two.

I guess being the baby ain't so bad after all, because I'd never be able to handle the pressure of being the first child (like ever).

Happy Monday everyone.

Where do you fall in birth order?

Do you agree with this timeline?