by Courtney Shay

Created on: March 20, 2007   Last Updated: May 17, 2007

There are many pros and cons to being an older child. Naturally, the grass is greener on the other side of the fence, so younger children may always say that being older is best while older children may feel that being younger is best. However, I'm here to state from my own experiences both the pros and cons of being the oldest child.

First the cons:

The biggest con is the way that being the oldest child makes one a kind of guinea pig for his parents to experiment their child-raising methods. The oldest child is his parents' first child. His parents are inexperienced. They may put more restrictions on the oldest child, and then by the time the youngest child comes along, they are more lax. This was the case with me. I had many restrictions put on me, but by the time my three brothers came along, they were allowed to do things at ages much younger than I was allowed to do. For example, I wasn't allowed to swim in our pool without an adult until I was about 15. However, they were swimming by themselves (with me) when they were 12 or younger! This leads to another con: babysitting.

Many older children may be expected to babysit their younger children even when they don't want to. In some cases they are not compensated for it. This leads to the older child having to mature too early, and not be able to enjoy being a kid.

Now the pros of being an oldest child:

Oldest children get to feel a sense of protection over their younger siblings. They learn confidence and leadership skills by protecting, guiding, and teaching their younger siblings. They feel a sense of joy by showing their younger siblings new things. Oldest children are proud to be the "big kid." Being older has that "cool factor" to it.

Oldest children sometimes get lavished over by their parents more than younger children. The newness of having a child, and each special moment record able and precious, is exciting to new parents. Sometimes this can be reversed in that the younger child is more lavished upon. But in most cases the older child is the new experience for the parents. And in this case can be a good one.

All in all, being oldest or youngest can both be equally good or bad experiences for a child. It all depends on a child's outlook. A child's happiness is directly related to the love of their parents, not particularly their birth order.

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