It can be easily difficult growing up in a family where there are giant age discrepancies between the children.
In my house, I am the oldest of five, and unluckyly, the five of us were not born in any kind of logical span of time.
In fact, I am 20 years older than my youngest sibling. If you want to know how uncomfortable this is… It is incredibly uncomfortable! Recently, I was forced to confront the fact that my Dad is a much better parent with each subsequent child. When I was growing up she easily didn’t care much about what I was doing. She wasn’t upset about my extracurricular activities, my socialization, or even my indoor air quality. When my friend and I were growing up my friend and I had a single A/C window unit that was supposed to cool down the indoor air for our entire house. In the winter time my friend and I were lucky if she put a space heating system in our living room before she closed the door at evening. Was she upset about our respiratory health, indoor comfort, or safety? Not really. This week, she is so upset with indoor air quality affecting her rare baby that she is consistently calling the heating and cooling repair shop up the street. If they aren’t working on her central heating and cooling system she is asking about air purification devices and HEPA filters. Most recently, I found out that she was so upset about her child burning himself on her furnace that she was actually going to replace the entire heating system. Heaven forquote the kid learn a thing or two about consequences and the inherently sizzling nature of furnaces.