Having a significant age gap between yourself and your younger sibling can be hard. You go through things at different stages of life and you find yourself occasionally wishing you had a one- or two-year difference as opposed to a five-plus-years age gap. It’s a blessing in disguise.
1. The play-fights
You will always have the unfair advantage of just being physically bigger, so a slight push could equal sending them flying across the room. Your parents would yell that you shouldn’t play-fight, but secretly you had a slight satisfaction with how powerful you felt.
2. Going to the store
I can’t tell you how many times and how awkward it is going to the local grocery store or retail store and getting told “OMG your daughter/son is adorable.” I am NOT old enough to have children, much less a son or daughter older than a toddler. I mean don’t get me wrong, every now and then it had its advantages; however, making me feel old is not a plus.
3. Being the chauffeur
Your parents will use you as their personal chauffeur for your sibling, and it was okay. You got to drive your younger sibling around to their first dance, their first school game. If they needed a ride home it was just a chance to drive and you love driving. You let them know who was the boss,
however, because if they even thought they were the boss they would have made the ride home a nightmare.
4. The mistaken parent/child mentality
For some reason at first, and you wont even notice it, you act more like a parent than a sibling. There’s probably some psychological explanation about family structure and age gaps, but all I know I know from experience. Your sibling will be mad you act like a parent and when you finally snap out of it (this could take years) it will be great. It tends to happen more when the younger one is going through the exact same thing you are. Could be high school, or higher.
5. Music Tastes
At first it annoyed you that your younger sibling tried to listen to the exact same music you did, but later you realized it was kind of adorable. Your own personal mini-me. Thank God someone had the decency to know what good music was, right? Until they realized they liked different music later on.
6. The slang, the hip new things
If you are not extremely older then you still are relatively in the “in”. You might have a slip now and then, but let’s face it urban dictionary is a life saver. BUT, should the site be down, you have someone from the younger generation to ask. Beware you might get made fun of at first, but you know it's all in good fun.
7. Clothing
In my situation, it’s slightly weird when I find my younger sibling wearing my clothes from high school. Only because she is a she, and I am a he. It looks like a pajama on her, but, she makes it work. It’s also a random and yet real-life throwback Thursday every time I haven’t.
8. Advice
You have literally gone through what they have. You walked the halls they are currently walking. They come to you for advice on anything and it's awesome. If they are more grown up, you sometimes even go to them for advice even if they are younger. It’s refreshing to hear what your sibling has to say, a fresh set of ears.
9. Being Apart
Being apart is kind of hard. Leaving the house to go to college and realizing that your relationship is stronger now that both of you are older is awesome but the distance sucks. It’s a good thing technology has allowed for video chat on the fly because the convenience of it is life saving. When you do get back together you have life chats, you go out and bond and realize that no distance can ruin the sibling bond.
10. Going out
If your parents don’t give your little sibling “allowance” when you go out, going to eat or to the movies means you pay. You know you are already pushing it going out on a college budget but you know you don’t do it often so you indulge to the point of wanting to spoil your younger sibling.
11. “Back in my day”
You don’t say it outright like that because you know that it would rise you to the level of ultimate old. But you catch yourself telling your younger sibling, “when I went [insert high school you attended that younger sibling currently attend] this and this was different.” Or something like, “If it was still like when I did this, it would be so different.” You kind of have a flash of panic but realize that it’s okay. Being older and having these stories makes you wiser and better right?
12. Technology
You thought you were the mastermind of computers and smartphones. But the younger generations were raised by it while you only learned about it in the middle of grade school. It can be intimidating and how fast they can text weirds you out, but you look at even younger kids and realize they know how to unlock an iPad but not how to color in a book.
13. Love
You internally laugh when they nonstop post on Twitter and Facebook about how heartbroken they are about their ex-boyfriend, who they dated for two weeks. You realize you went through that, however, and know you have to be there for them no matter what. You hope that they never go through a “real” heartbreak because if you’ve been through one, you know how hard it really is. Heartbreak in middle/high school is not the same as heartbreak in the “real world.”
14. Picking on them
You LOVE to pick on them because it’s fun and as an older sibling it's your first-born-given right. They will try to pick on you too, but you know who’s the real winner. The second anyone else tries to pick on them, you get defensive and you make sure to establish NO ONE gets to pick on them if it’s not you.
In the end, the age gap has only made you stronger. You might have some differences here and there but you know that no age gap can interfere with the sibling love and bond you have. You know you wouldn’t have it any other way.
