Being the first born can be such a pain. You're basically a guinea pig to your parents – they experiment with being overprotective, strict and overbearing. Then, when your younger sibling starts doing the same things you did, you find that your parents allow them to do the exact things you were never allowed to do.
Let's not forget that your siblings can be the worst. They try to get you in trouble for everything, take your things without your permission and seem to always be at your mothers side when she's scolding you (making faces and laughing, of course).
Being the oldest child can seem like a curse. We're always given the short end of the stick – and everyone's justification for it? "You're the oldest, you need to set an example." Being the oldest is a lot of pressure, but it does come with some perks.
You get to do everything first. You get to go to prom first, graduate high school first and go to college first. You get to see the look of pride in your parents eyes for every single one of your milestones, because you're their first kid and your success is the product of their first try at parenthood.
You have little people that look up to you, literally and figuratively. They look at everything you do and start thinking about their own futures. They mimic what you do the same way you mimicked your parents. As the oldest sibling, you find that you're their influence to a lot of things – whether they refuse to do the things that you do or they are miniature versions of you. When you get older, you begin to understand that they're watching everything you do. That alone will make you be careful with everything that you do.
Along with being able to do everything before anyone, and knowing that your younger siblings are being influenced by you, you're able to take pride in the fact that you've helped your parents with taking care of your little brother or sister. Yes, changing their diapers sucked, giving them half of everything on your plate sucked and giving them half of your toys sucked the most, but you get to walk away knowing that your parents are less stressed out because you were able to help them. You helped stop the tantrums, you were the first one up when your brother or sister fell off their bike and you were right next to them when they were too afraid of the dark to sleep.
Being the eldest child seems like a jinx because you get pressured into taking a huge responsibility of helping form a human being, but you'll form a bond with your younger siblings that no one without a younger brother or sister will understand. You'll form an attachment that makes it impossible for you to even think about being an only child. Being the eldest child is a blessing in disguise.
