The Last Born Syndrome

Have you ever seen how soft parents get when they are raising their last born child? It’s appalling honestly. I have seen my Dad transform from being Thanos to a care bear ever since my little brother was born, and the way these last borns are spoilt? My goodness!, those little bastards can get away with murder and can pretty much have ice cream instead of greens at the dinner table . I’ve tried to figure out what causes this sudden change in parenting tactics, is it age, did they grow fonder,or maybe there’s a clause that all parents sign to take it easier on the last born kids. It’s an epidemic ( Okay that’s a bit dramatic but still) and i eventually decided to name this phenomena, The Last Born Syndrome.

I was born in ’98 and my older brother was born in ’95,but we were always inseperable. We’d play the same games and pretty much wore matching outfits when we were little. Life was simple and fair, whatever he got, i got too, and whenever i got in trouble, he’d get in trouble too ( You’re your brother’s keeper, duh).Growing up my dad was quite a hard man to please. He had high standards for us, and no grade was ever good enough and he’d probably want to see you score 100% on all your tests. Still, he was loving and caring in his own way, and his punishments were stern but necessary.

As kids, we’d get ourselves into a lot of trouble, and you’d always know we were going to receive the stick when Dad came back home. I’m not even trying to paint him as a bad guy, our Dad gave us an ass-whooping when we deserved it, and we turned out alright. Besides, if you came clean before he found out what you did, he’d let you off the hook, and in a way taught us the virtuous trait of honesty. One time in 2005, my mom had to go to Tanzania for a business retreat and he had to take care of us that entire week, best week ever! My dad used to work in a restaurant when he was still a young man finding his feet in the capital, so that entire week was filled with some of the best cuisine he’s ever made. He bought us a gaming console ( which could only be played upon finishing homework and other chores of course) and even played soccer with us inside the house! It was indeed an awesome week and is forever one of our fondest memories with Thanos.

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Fast forward a few years later and everything changed. My little brother was born in ’06 and we were all overjoyed to receive the newest member of our family. I was eight years old and i felt good that i was now someone’s older brother, i couldn’t wait to teach him all the games we played and look out for him whenever the bigger kids tried to give him trouble at the playground. Over the years, as my hermanito grew bigger and bigger, so did the parenting tectonic plates start to shift too. All those times my mother would yell when we broke vases were now replaced with phrases like, ” Oh my poor baby, did you hurt yourself, are you alright?”. Now when mom would came back from work with goodies, all of a sudden the goodies were now sanctioned and were now all ” For the baby”. No crime was too severe that baby boy could commit, and when he started school, even his low grades were justified and ” he probably gave it his best shot”. My older brother and I couldn’t believe what we were seeing, and funny enough, the strictness never eased on our end, Que Diable! We were living with Harry Potter and the boy who lived couldn’t do no wrong.

As a kid, this whole dynamic bothered me. I was jealous for the most part (Obviously, i was a kid too), but as i grew up my jealousy turned more into concern. Of course i was happy that my little brother was being pampered and living like a king, but i also started to get worried whether that might affect his character development, and his academics. I feared the extra leniency that my parents were showing him could lead to him easing up and not performing as much. Also, I began to notice how my little brother had developped this very bad habit of being a serial liar. This kid was lying about every little thing, and he knew he could get away with it. Clearly he didn’t attend the honesty lectres taught by Thanos and his beloved wooden stick, and Harry Potter was shooting the bull.

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I believe I surely ain’t the only one ( Siri, play “I know i’m not the only one” by Sam Smith) who feels like parents tend to be extra lenient with their last born.What I now want to know is whether this is helpful for the kids or it is downright detrimental. My little brother is still in his teens now and i really hope he won’t get caught up in the whole rebellion stage, next thing you know he wants to go backpacking in Europe with three bucks to his name ( which isn’t necessariy a bad thing, but ). Anyway, do let me know what you think about the Last Born Syndrome in the comment section, and don’t forget to subscribe to get email updates. Stay safe and stay young,peace out.