Katharina Buczek
This 26-year-old woman has a younger sister, who is 22. Unfortunately, though, they have never had a close relationship, and she actually never considered her sister to be a good friend or even a caring family member.
Now, she realizes that most of this was not really her sister’s fault. Instead, she blames it on her parents– who believed that, since she was older, she constantly needed to make sacrifices for her little sister.
For instance, if they were getting takeout and her sister wanted pizza– but she wanted Chinese– her sister got her way. After all, her sister was “the baby,” meaning that she was expected to agree for her sister’s sake.
The same thing would happen if they were invited to birthday parties on the same day. Her sister got to go, but she was supposed to be okay with just staying home.
This became a major theme in her life, with everything from her sister getting to pick family movies and her being required to watch her sister at any time to her sister even getting more of a say in their family vacation destinations.
“We were all supposed to get a vote,” she explained, referring to where they went on vacation.
“But my sister’s always counted as two. So, after a while, it seemed pointless.”
She admitted to realizing that this imbalance between older and younger siblings is not uncommon. She even said that when done in moderation, she doesn’t necessarily think it’s a bad thing.
However, there was never any balance in her family or evening out of the scales.
Sign up for Chip Chick’s newsletter and get stories like this delivered to your inbox.
