5 Reasons Why I Didn't Like Growing Up In A Large Family

Movies can make large families out to be a really great experience and living situation. 'Party of Five', 'The Sound of Music' - I'm sure we can all name a show or movie that made you wish you had more siblings. And I admit, sometimes it was fun! But there were definitely times when it wasn't...

1. No one ended up getting the attention they deserved.

There were 6 kids at home. 4 of around the same age, and the last 2 a few years behind. The little kids required a lot of attention, which is understandable, but it did mean that us older kids were meant to figure things out on our own quite a bit. And when we had a problem, the parents could help, but not 4 of us at the same time - it always meant that one or more kids weren't given the full attention they needed; whether that referred to helping with homework, problems with friends, or just in general.

2. 'Alone time' doesn't exist.

As a major introvert, this one was quite hard for me. I can be around people and chat happily sans any problems, but if I've done this full-time for a couple of days in a row, I simply need to be alone for a while. Which proved near to impossible. For many years, I shared a room - the lack of alone time for this should be pretty self-explanatory... But even later on, when I had my own room, someone would probably barge in 'just to say hi', another one would need help with this or that, and if you were lucky and no one disturbed you; wrong. The amount of noise heard meant you might as well just be smack bang in the middle of the living room.

3. Pressure to succeed.

No matter what you did, it was very likely that you always seemed to live in someone else's shadow. There were siblings before you that did things to a higher standard, and siblings after you that did different things, but still to a higher standard than you. You never seemed to excel because even if you did very well in a certain thing, so what? Chances were, at least one of your siblings excelled at it as well.

4. Forced playmates.

Did you always have someone your age around? Yes. Were they who you wanted to hang out with? Not necessarily. While you might love your siblings, you don't necessarily like them. I mean, you didn't choose this friendship - there was a high probability that you didn't have the same interests or compatible personalities, which made it hard to get along sometimes.

5. Snack always disappeared.

Probably the least serious one of my list, but definitely not the least important one! Because whether you were looking forward to those leftovers you dibs-ed, that chocolate your mom bought especially for you, or one out of the ten cans of coke in the fridge... too bad. They were al. ways. gone.

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One of the most shocking things about living by myself now, is that when I put a pack of cookies in the cupboard, and I open it again two days later - it's still there! But aside from these points, I obviously also experienced a lot of good times growing up in a bigger family, so give this a like if you want to see a list for that as well!

Thanks for reading! Lots of hugs,

T