Sibling rivalry has lost it’d flavor with smaller families. With only one sibling it’s hard to have much since you can’t gang up and are too dependent on each other. Not like the old days. In those days, with six and eight and ten bothers and sisters, you had all kinds of rivalries and set ups and pecking orders.

    The oldest was the independent one. As you got older it never changed, especially when the oldest was a girl. Even in your middle age you were leery of the oldest one. Here you were with a “I don’t take crap from anyone” attitude and, yet, you took crap from the oldest sister. She could still lecture you. You might not heed what she said but you did listen.

    She started as the Queen Bee. She was first and the center of attraction. Then, Mom got fat and then brought a baby home. Now is was, “Don’t be so loud, you’ll wake the baby.” “Don’t hit the baby, you’ll hurt her.” That was the purpose. So, off the oldest would go to be independent.

    The second one would learn to walk and talk and the two would get along OK. Now what? Another baby! A crying, stinking baby. Whew! Really smelly. The two sisters kept as far from this new child as they could. Later, the three would learn to get along and things were fine again. Fine again until the fourth one got there. It was a boy. It was a problem.

    Mom was bathing this creature in the sink. The girls came over to watch. Didn’t have TV in those days. Watching a baby being bathed was real entertaining. They looked at this baby and asked,” What’s that”.

    Uh, oh. Mom was waiting for that question. Not prepared to answer it, just waiting. Since she had no answer she’d run the three girls off. They had a long discussion about what they’d seen. That led to the constant, “Get out of here, you freak”. Yes, the first boy grew up with at least ten or twelve different syndromes.

    Then a couple more boys would come along. It was too late for the three older girls to stop calling the first boy a freak but they now took charge of the younger kids. They liked being boss. They liked being bossy. Mom decided that they did so well that they could take on some responsibility for the younger ones. The girls didn’t want that. Now it changed.

    The younger boys had no way of knowing what was what. The girls despised them and so did the older brother. If the girls didn’t get a date for the weekend it was the kids’ fault. It wasn’t anything they lacked. No, it was the kids’ fault. Bad grades? Yes, the kids keep them too busy.

    As the younger ones grew up and the older ones left it changed things again. Now, there was relief. The older ones treated them like nephews instead of brothers. They were back to being ignored.

    Now, in middle age, they are accepted as adults. Now, they are OK. But, you know what? The younger ones never got over it. They are still leery of the older girls. The older girls like it that way.