We had to cut the day short and my oldest didn't get to fly his kite as much as he would have liked, nor did he get to do many of the other activities. Stories like this are fairly common when age-gaps are present. Karen Bumgardner, mother of two girls age 18 years and 7 months, recalls a time when she felt her oldest was cheated out of the attention she deserved from her mother. It made me sad that I couldn't be there to support her. She didn't express anything about feeling forgotten, but I think she was disappointed.
Feelings can get hurt when it comes to household responsibilities as well.
Though parents usually feel older children are more capable of taking on more tasks in the house than their younger brothers and sisters, the older child may feel that they are being unduly burdened while their younger sibling is being shown preferential treatment. Even though older children may be able to recognize that a young child isn't capable of doing certain tasks, the maturity might not be present to keep feelings of jealousy from occurring. Guidelines Reproduction of this material without written permission is strictly prohibited. Copyright 1996 - 2000 Parenting Today's Teen , All Rights Reserved.