So you are the adult sibling now.
Congratulations.
You have been on your own for a while and experienced a taste of independence and personal responsibility.
You cannot wait to reunite with family and spend some quality time with your younger siblings.
But sometimes that quality time means taking care of them. By yourself. For a week, maybe more.
You are the adult.
No parents around, just you. You are the adultiest adult in the building.
Here are 12 things you must be prepared for:
1. The Wake-Up Call
You become a human alarm clock. Prepare yourself for the muttering, the pillow, the karate chop. Also prepare an annoyingly perky wake-up song. Goooood morning!!!
2. Being Mistaken for the Parent
Complete strangers assume that you are the parent. “Ask your mom before you try the sample,” says the Costco employee. He’s talking to your sibling but gesturing towards you. You do the mental math. How is that even possible?
3. Getting Called Mom by Accident
In an absentminded moment, your sibling calls you mom. “Hey mom...oh". This is more embarrassing for the sibling than you. This is, in fact, hilarious. Especially when it happens again. And again. You will not let this joke go.
4. Driving Together
You are the chauffeur, the errand-runner. That means your sibling gets shotgun and becomes the DJ, the shopping list, and Google maps navigator. It gets stressful, but you also bond through this. You mutually expand your music tastes through many a car ride jam session.
5. Managing Play-dates
Your phone is blowing up, but not because of your own popularity. All of the new numbers in your phone are your sibling’s friends and their parents. Who is picking who up? Are they coming here or there? Where will they need to get dropped off? So this is what a social life is like.
6. Rubbing Off On Them
You find a few great new shows together. Later, you hear your sibling has been bragging to a friend, "Living with my sister is awesome! She lets me stay up past midnight to watch college themed comedy shows." The realization settles in. You have been giving out lessons in the art of binge watching. Oops.
7. Establishing Healthy Habits
Suddenly you are responsible for your sibling’s diet.
That means your carnivorous sibling needs vegetables and your vegetarian
sibling needs some source of protein. This is great, because your own college eating habits
need to be re-worked. It is a group effort!
8. Granting Wishes
Under your supervision, the sibs eat their veggies and they do their homework and they attend their piano class, so you decide they earn a treat. Your sibling voices a desire to try spaghetti tacos. You use your refined cooking skills to make this dream a reality.
9. Posting On Social Media
Everything that happens is golden material for SnapChat, Twitter, etc. You finally understand parents who gush about their kids online. You post on Instagram about how much you are thankful for your sibling. Then realize that was a major waste of time, why not show you care in real life?
10. Taking Cool Trips
You want to be the coolest older sibling ever, so you take your siblings to places that you secretly enjoy just as much (and probably more) than they do. Ice cream, drive-in movies, the outdoor pool. Time to relive your childhood!
11. Working Through It
You are not the parent even if you are in charge.Your siblings are aware of this and the new dynamic takes some work. Being responsible for yourself as an adult is hard as it is. Taking care of other humans too? That's a whole nother level. There will be tense times, there will be insanely good times.
12. The Surprise Hugs
This is the best part.
It happens randomly and unexpectedly, siblings give you a hug out of nowhere to say thank you.
"You're the best non-mommy mommier. Thanks for taking care of us"
Yeah, it is all worth it.
Afterwards, you have gained a new appreciation for your siblings and for parenting.
You can now fully appreciate your status as a single person with minimal responsibility.
Major respect for all the full-time parents and guardians out there, and much love to all the little siblings of the world.
We wouldn't be the big sibling without them.
