Don't I wish

[fancytalk]

You Are Likely an Only Child

At your darkest moments, you feel frustrated. At work and school, you do best when you're organizing. When you love someone, you tend to worry about them. In friendship, you are emotional and sympathetic. Your ideal careers are: radio announcer, finance, teaching, ministry, and management. You will leave your mark on the world with organizational leadership, maybe as the author of self-help books.

The Birth Order Predictor

I really should have been an only child. For some reason my parents brought home a real baby instead of the baby doll I wanted. Parent's just don't understand.

Comments

[curefreak.livejournal.com]

I swear you make me laugh more than I thought was possible. I can just picture your parents coming home and you saying "NO! That's wrong, where's my EFFING CABBAGE PATCH SIBLING???!!!"

[yesimthegirl.livejournal.com]

I asked my mother one time why she listened to me when I asked for a little brother. She said that I didn't ask for a little brother, I asked for a baby. Given that my brother is 2 years + 1 day younger than I am, I'm pretty sure my birthday request was for a baby doll and NOT the little brother.

[yarbiedoll.livejournal.com]

Ah, but DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince sure did...

And so do I. To this day, my parents still maintain that the reason I have a brother is because I wanted a sibling. I have no recollection of this; I was 6. I feel certain that if this is even true, I would have wanted a sister!

(In deathsled's defense, he's an awesome little brother and I wouldn't trade him for anyone else in the world.)

[yesimthegirl.livejournal.com]

I think you lucked out with the 6 year age difference.

2 years 1 day, which is a bit too close to prevent wanting to kill a brother once a month or so. Then add the fact that my mother wanted to make everything equal all the time. "If she can do it why can't I do it?" which turned into "you wouldn't let me do it 2 years ago". Thank goodness for my daddy.

[yarbiedoll.livejournal.com]

Oooooo. *squints eyes & clenches fists*

You just got my goat with that last part. I had to put up with that and there's a 6.5 year difference between us. I fought so hard for everything I was ever allowed to do/have, and then Brother just got to have it/do it then, too. Aargh. My Mom's response to my complaints? Well, that's just how it is when you're the oldest child... you get to pave the way for your siblings. It's always easier for the younger children.

Did I hear her right? She was the oldest of three. Had she totally forgotten the frustration of being the oldest sibling? I used to swear I'd never grow up and play the "everybody's equal" game. It ticked me off.

[yesimthegirl.livejournal.com]

I think your mom and my mom went to the same parenting school because I heard that exact same response. I do believe that the "everybody's equal" game could work, but you have to stick to age and let it slide with the younger child.

The other thing that always got me was when little brother did something bad, he got the "you've been a bad boy" slap on the wrist. But if I did the exact same thing, I didnt' see daylight for weeks. Now that I think about it, I'm probably still grounded for a few things.

[yarbiedoll.livejournal.com]

I agree that the "everybody's equal" game can work if you stand by alotting certain privileges at certain ages. It didn't happen around our hous that way, though. I hate to say it (because overall, I think my parents were/are great parents), but I sometimes wonder if letting my brother do everything I did (but years earlier) was just a product of lazy parenting. Mom had Baby Brother right before she turned 40, so I wouldn't be surprised if, by the time she was 50 (and I was about to graduate from high school), she was ready for both her kids to be grown enough to take care of themselves.

And grounding! You just made me realize that, although I missed countless school events and birthday parties due to grounding (for what were mostly very trivial offenses), I can't ever remember my brother being banished to his room. And my groundings weren't usually less than 1-2 weeks in duration. Thank goodness for my Dad, because he was usually able to mitigate my sentence and get me out on "parole".

[yesimthegirl.livejournal.com]

Now I'm convinced that your mom and my mom were sharing notes.

My mom had this thing about "back-talk". Of course what got me into the most trouble was asking "if you don't want me to back-talk then why do you keep asking me questions?" One time she gave me a choice - grounded for 2 weeks or write 1000 times "I will not talk back to my mother". After about 100 sentences I decided that it wasn't worth it. And you are right about daddies, they usually could work out a lighter sentence.

[yarbiedoll.livejournal.com]

Ha! Yep, that was it. I don't ever think I actually did anything "bad" - it was always the back-talk that got me in trouble. And I usually ran myself into the ground by calling my Mom on the fallacies in her argument. Too smart for my own good, I guess. If I ever have my own kids, I'll let them argue with their father. He was a CompSci major; he took all those logic classes!