Being the youngest

I know what it's like to be the older sister in a situation of a large age gap, but I wanted to know what it's like for the younger sibling in this situation. I talked to my friend Mike Albertini (20) about his life as the baby of the family. Mike has four other siblings: a sister five years older, a brother eight years older, a brother ten years older, a sister 16 years older, and a brother 18 years older. Mike shared with me his experiences of feeling like he had second parents, distance relationships, and the pros and cons of being the "baby".

What was it like growing up in a house where you were the youngest?

I was the entertainment pretty much. They used to put me in a huge blanket and tie it up, then they would leave me outside and lock the doors. Once it was even snowing. And a lot of tickle torture, which I hated because being ticklish is one of my weaknesses.

One of my sisters has this thing for slapping me. This summer we were at a beer festival in Portland, and after we were staying at her place, I decided I wanted to go home. She didn't want me to drive so she slapped me like ten times.

How was your relationship with your siblings?

It's changed a lot over the years. Now, I finally have caught up to them, and we're on even playing fields. Before it was hard, like when they'd all go out, and it was my bed time. Now they all have families. I was five years old when my brother married and ten years old when my sister got married. I was the ring bearer for both of them.

It was weird cause I was an uncle when I was eight years old. I'm definitely the cool, young uncle. I'm Uncle Mikey. But they don't respect me, they don't even call me "uncle", I'm just Mikey.

Did your parents treat you differently than your older siblings?

My siblings give me shit all the time, cause they think I've had it easy. I got a car and they said I was spoiled. There's definitely a little resentment. They paved the way for me, definitely. What not to do, get ideas of what you should do.

As far as my parents, let’s just say I knew how to play the game and they didn’t want to play anymore. Their mentality was: do whatever you want, just don’t get busted for it.

Did you act differently than your friends, having older siblings?

Yeah, one thing different was I'd try to be older. I think it had to do with the trying to catch up thing.

What's an example?

Like playing video games in high school with my friend. I got it in my head that my brothers didn't play video games. I thought we should go drinking and start trying to do stuff.

What was your relationship with your oldest brother (18 year gap)?

Tony was the authoritative type of guy for me. He wasn't in the house when I was growing up. He would come home once in a while, and he had a mullet. I was like Tony's old and weird. When I was a sophomore in high school I went to the beach with Tony. He lectured me about how great 80s music was, and made me listen to Eddie Money and Poison. I was like "Oh my God, you're such a loser". That's so funny cause that's probably gonna be you with your little sister. [Thanks!]