I would like to propose a new holiday...

[May-chan]

(disclaimer, this is a sloppy, mish-mashed together, may-chan styled ramble and rant)


Eldest Day.

like mothers day and fathers day but instead to honor eldest siblings.

I thought this up because once again my sister is going to prom (like the 7th prom she has attended in 3 years...) and this summer she is going to France... and although I told my mom that she should only go if father pays for 100%... as I suspected she has started paying money for passports and all sorts of whatnot... She keeps getting clothes and gifts and treats from both my parents that she never truly uses or appreciates. She is now begging both parents to help her get into (all of the following at once): Tai Chi, Kayaking, returning to Figure Skating, returning to Tang Soo Do, and a few other things her fickle mind can come up with. She uses the excuse "but look mommy, I was accepted into honors society..." constantly then adds "...can I have $200 for shoes?" or something of the like to the end. Because she has scads of friends and references she will be able to get a job when she wants, and not have to search in vain for months like I am. Because she is the youngest she is given constant attention. She gets praise and encouragement for everything and anything, and the means to do it...

I on the other hand am doing my best to get by, and trying so hard to gain independence so I can live modestly on my own in the place I like. I take so much responsibility, and since the divorce have filled the role of a parent many times over. I take care of everything that is my own, cleaning and maintaining. Diligently doing chores and running errands for my family members like a stay-at-home mom. I act kindly and politely and try to never cause anxiety for my family. I feel guilty that I have to be a burden and rely on others' money to eat and live, I know a large amount of money goes to feeding me and keeping me in this little old annex, though I'm sure my sister will get a luxury condo when she gets to college... I take responsibility for a great many things, and try to be as upstanding and moralistic as possible.

I guess my point is, in our society today, eldest siblings do not have the honor that they have had in different times and in other cultures today... currently it is just responsibility we are given as the baby of the family gets spoils. They say eldest siblings are more likely to be successful and have prestigious positions, but that is only true because we feel guilt relying on others and know that in order to feed ourselves we will need to struggle a lot harder than our younger popular princes and princesses. The only real privilege we have anymore is riding in the front seat on family trips...

And that is why I propose Eldest Day. I feel that there needs to be at least one day of the year where our younger siblings will grant us respect and actually give us the time of day for all the times we have taken falls for them, been responsible for them, been blamed for something they did, making mistakes so they wouldn't repeat them, babysitting them, raising them like they were our own child, for being ignored so that they could get affection and attention!












...then again... the likeliness of such a thing coming to be... feh... I guess I should dream on.

[Selena Aninikkou]

The only real privilege we have anymore is riding in the front seat on family trips...

I never even got that most of the time. My younger brothers would get by with low marks and whine and get whatever they wanted, while my 85-90% average wasn't good enough. And when I had responsibility dumped on me for "being the oldest", complaining just lead to the ungrateful lecture.

[ZeroForever]

eh that's how it always is, the oldest usually has the highest expectations, after them the parents usually mellow out ending with the spoiled youngest.

i'm the middle child anyways.

[Queen Octavia]

I am the youngest of 4, ph33r me! The eldest is definately parent's favourite in my family, as she hath produced offspring. My parents are all like "Tsk, tsk, why havent you given us grandchildren yet", and I'm all like - "I'm only 20!".

Zoh wellZ.

[Tala]

Boo. Middle children need a holoday because we are left out alot and need attention.

[May-chan]

every day is youngest/middle child day! Whadda we gotta do to get our youngin's to address us as Onee/Onii-sama here...

[Raleigh]

I'm the eldest of 4. I can honestly say being the oldest is usually the rougher course. No one in your family, parents included, know quite how to handle the things that will be happening as you grow up. You're the parents learning experiance, its why most of us eldest children are also usually the most screwed up. My siblings have had it easier than me in several ways, not the least of the which is they weren't raised with a no as an answer to just about everything that came to pass, nor where they aware enough to be as bothered by such things as divorces and arguements. Most of us eldest, for a time at some point, halfway help raise the younger children and advise them, which helps account even more for their spoiling. I agree, Eldest Day should be set in motion.

[Metroidvania]

I'm all for the idea.

Growing up, I always had to be the responsible one, while my parents were a _lot_ less strict on my younger siblings, or it was my fault for not stopping them from goofing off. Ah, the memories......

Urge...to......whack....younger....sister...rising.....

(shakes my head)

anyways, I heartily agree with Eldest day, May.

[Mistress Guendolen]

You know, I must say that not all younger kids get spoiled and pampered. I'm the younger of us, and I never got any special treatment. If anything, in fact, I had higher expectations of me, at least from my Dad. My older brother is very intelligent and capable and what not, and he was always comparing us and typically finding my abilities at least somewhat wanting. I was the one who was never quite good enough, and he always wanted to give my brother more privileges than me. Said brother and I are very close, though- in fact, I consider him one of my best friends- so I would still support Eldest Day on those grounds.

[Mitera Nikkou]

Being the eldest of two, and comparing the treatment between us, I definitely got the short end of the stick. That's about all that I can say. Although I do suspect that a little bit of it is due to my only sibling being a girl... Mind you, that's the discretion that I perceive coming from my parents, not myself.

[Tala]

Does the holoday have to celebrate only the oldest in the family. How about the oldest and anyone within 5 years the the oldest's age? That would be fine with me.

[Raleigh]

I will admit it does seem my siblings had a similar problem to yours at times, Guen. However it wasn't from family members but from people in the community. Even though I never won any real awards for academic achievement, my siblings were always being asked how they liked being the second, or in some cases third, to get the award in my family. I never could figure that one out due to the fact that I never won one. *Shrugs.* Still, over all, they didn't seem that pressured as I can tell except the youngest in handling public speaking. He gets nervous while I thrive in that situation.

[Tiaiel]

I must admit that I am one of the `lucky´ younger child. My brother is two years older then I am. It could be, that he had it soetimes harder, but the difference between us was never that big and by now I am more grown up, than he is. So everyone worrys about what he will do and how he will get good Job and so on, while I am expected to get only the best grades in school.
But none of us tries to get more from our parents then the other one. It's more like both of us are working together against our parents to get what we both want.
Anyway: I am for the eldest day, for all the years, I really was the younger one XD

[SweetSophia]

Ah. I'm with Guen. I attended the same school as my eldest brethrend and all I heard was how magnificent, amazing, creative, intelligent...etc, etc. Not to mention that it seemed like half the time, my older siblings seemed to have "mellowed" my parents out so much that they seemed to tired to take active intrest in things the third time around.

And any special treatment recived on account of being youngest was swiftly counteracted with being picked on by my brothers....which in turn prompted more special treatment...ad infinum, ad nauseum.

I don't know about an eldest day, I'm not going to stop anybody, but my vote's not in it.

[Mistress Guendolen]

Ah, I always got stuff like that. For so many years in school I seemed to be known not as a person in my own right, but as his little sister. And everyone expected me to live up to standard and do all the same things, despite, well, the age gap and being two completely different people.... I got a bit of my own back, though, when in college. (We went to the same one due to a wondeful thing called the Family Plan; for the years there were siblings from the same family attending, all younger ones got 50% off on tuition, which allowed us both to get through college debt-free.) One of the English professors met him for the first time and was like, "Oh, so you're Wendy's brother!" He'd never gotten that before, and it was amusing.

I will admit it does seem my siblings had a similar problem to yours at times, Guen. However it wasn't from family members but from people in the community. Even though I never won any real awards for academic achievement, my siblings were always being asked how they liked being the second, or in some cases third, to get the award in my family. I never could figure that one out due to the fact that I never won one. *Shrugs.* Still, over all, they didn't seem that pressured as I can tell except the youngest in handling public speaking. He gets nervous while I thrive in that situation.