Living with Youngest Child Syndrome

This is an article reaching out to people who are the youngest in the family with a bunch of kids.  I don’t know if anyone can relate to this, but I am a change of life baby, which means my mother had me when she was 40. May she rest in peace.  So all my brothers and sisters are older than me.  And yes, I consistently get, “oh, you’re the baby of the family.”  And I understand that the oldest gets more responsibility, and the ones in the middle feel ignored, and everyone feels the baby gets all the attention. Let me assure you, as a baby, yes, I did get attention, but when I needed it, not really. You know, adolescents , teen years.

                The youngest one in line to me was 10 years older than me, everyone else older than him, and I guess because of this, I had some hero worship going on. I looked up to them a lot. But as a teenager, nothing I liked or was interested in was ever encouraged. The only thing they ever said was that I was a hustler because I worked so much…I wish that energy was put more into my school work or maybe I should have joined the Navy when I thought about it..too late now.  So I thought that was the norm. Now from working like a dog, my body is killing me. Listen youngsters, figure out how to work smarter, not harder, and I don’t mean anything criminal!! The only one that seemed to encourage anything with me was my dad, and I lost him when I was 13. He came to my softball games.  When I wanted guitar lessons, my mother and he got into a fight because my dad wanted the guy who was a little more money because he thought he was the better teacher.  I still took some lessons, guy I learned from was a band member for Randy and the Rainbows, you youngsters need to ask your parents who that is. They might not even know. I know all the oldies because of my older siblings.

                Anyway, what I am here to tell you is this. There is a thing called, “youngest child syndrome”, where the youngest child feels like they can’t do anything right.  Listen my young minions; I had about a year of therapy before my own therapist told me she went through the same thing.  It’s also pretty heart wrenching when you’re with your whole family and it’s like you’re a ghost when they are talking over you-like you’re not even there.  I love my family, or it wouldn’t be heart wrenching.