All About Siblings!

I know this is not a common topic to write on. But I felt I should share my experience of being a second kid out of three to my parents. I would like to dedicate this write-up my sister and brother. I enjoyed every bit of childhood with the resources available at that point in time. I experimented, explored, experienced, irritated, learnt, enjoyed to the core when I was a kid. I always cherish my childhood. Was fortunate enough to get good friends circle. Life was good. Being an extrovert, I was always surrounded by people. To the outside world, we all grow old. But not to brothers and sisters. We know each other as we always were. We know each other's hearts. We share private family jokes. We remember family feuds and secrets, family griefs and joys. Siblings are our first set of friends with whom we share unique bonding. Strangely, we treat family members are friends and friends as extended family. 

Brother sister relationship are like Tom and Jerry. They tease and irritate each other, knock each other down, but can't live without each other. Siblings can say things to one another that no one else can. Older siblings get more total-immersion mentoring with their parents before younger siblings come along. As a result, they get an IQ and linguistic advantage because they are the exclusive focus of their parents' attention. Usually, younger siblings learn most of the things from elder one's. I learnt a lot of things from my elder sibling. She is my  role model, inspiration, guide, friend and critic. I admire my elder sibling. I look up to her when I need something. Siblings will always be there for each other. The first kid will always be matured and responsible. They act as the head of the family in parents absence. 

No matter how old you become, when you are with your siblings, you revert to childhood. The younger sibling is always like a baby to the elder ones for a lifetime. The second kid will always have an orphan-like feeling. They don't feel loved. The first one would have already occupied space in parents heart and they will already be parents favourite. They would have invested a lot of time with the first one. Parents learn, experiment and grow up with the first kid. The elder one would have already set some expectation, rules and regulations. There was a trend of having at least one boy baby. Expecting parents would have to go through a lot of stress. The pressure of having at least one boy baby was very high during 80's. It was a matter of pride and prestige. That is the reason kids born in 80's would have a minimum of 2 siblings. Sometimes a second kid used to be a result of the struggle of the parents who struggle to satisfy society. Parents who have had two back to back girls babies would have gone through a lot of pressure from their respective families to have one boy baby. They would go for second one expecting that they would deliver a boy baby. So generally second kids are the result of parents struggle to satisfy the society. They are forced to think so much about it through their pregnancy. If it turns out to be a girl, then there used to be a great amount of disappointment. There is nothing that a mother can do about it scientifically. But back then, the family used to blame the mother of the child. 

Younger siblings would always get scoldings from parents by comparing with elder one. Last kid is always an apple of a parent's eye as he/she is youngest of all. The last kid will pampered to the core. The first kid will be loved as it is the first blessing from god and last kid will be pampered as he/she would be the youngest one. Second kid won't fall under any of these categories. Probably, this is the reason why they are attention seekers and they do not like it if someone if ignores/avoid them. This is how I used to think when I was a kid.  I realised none of  this is true as I grew up. All the kids are the same to parents. Every kid will get an equal amount of love. It cannot be measured or calculated. We realize all these things when we get into their shoes.

But now things have changed drastically. The trend is to have one healthy baby no matter if it is a girl baby or boy as most of the mothers are working to support their families. It is really difficult to manage the kid without family support. It is very rare to see a joint family living together.

Never hurt your parents. They are everything. The amount of pain we get from our children for some reason will be more than the pain we would have given to our parents. Life is a cycle. History repeats and children may have to go through the same level of pain that our parents have gone through. We do not live for 100 years. Try to listen to your parents advise and give them the amount of happiness that they deserve. It is ok to compromise on a few things. They always think about the children's future and well-being. Parents would have understood life more than their children. Try to consider the advise that they give for life. They always wish good for their children. We may feel that what they are advising is wrong because of the generation gap that we have. But we realize that they were right when things go wrong.  

Family is everything. You are lucky enough if you have one.

If you are a second kid, yes you were always loved by your parents the way your other siblings were loved. :)

Disclaimer: I have written this blog out of my own experience. I do not intend to hurt anybody's feelings here.

Stay safe! Stay healthy! 

See you in my next blog.