The curse of being the oldest.

There are some things that are really good about being the oldest child in a family, I'm the oldest in my family, and I wouldn't have wanted it any other way, I loved being the oldest.  There are some downsides to being the oldest though, downsides that I didn't really notice when I was little, but with my little oldest boy, Kai, they're all too obvious.

You see, the thing is, when you're the oldest, you're always more grown up than everyone else in the family, no matter how old the others get, you're always going to be older.  

Earlier today, Kai was asking about something that happened when he was younger, and as I was telling him about it, I realised that he was the same age as Anja is now, but back then he seemed so much older, so much more grown up.  Which of course, he wasn't, but as there was no one older, he seemed to be a big boy already.

Of course, now he's seven, and he seems so grown up, but I suspect when the others reach seven, they will seem to be much, much younger than he is now.

I suppose the curse of being the youngest is that you always seem much younger than you actually are, and that you'll eternally be the baby of the family.  As I said before, being the oldest does have some great advantages, and I loved it, but for my oldest, I never really fully appreciate how little he is, when he is little.  He is fantastic though, big or little.