Memories of Being a Youngest Child

While chatting with someone on IM last night, we exchanged some of our experiences as being youngest children with much older siblings. It brought back to mind several things, some of which I'll share with you now.

I am the youngest of three children, with my siblings being ten and thirteen years older. I can only assume my existence is because my father forgot to go to the drug store for a condom run one night in 1957.

Because I was so much younger than my siblings, I was pretty much at their mercy if they chose to tease and torment me, which they did on several occasions when my parents wouldn't be home and they'd be babysitting me. I can remember my sister chasing me down and sitting on my face and farting. It's a wonder I didn't pass out when she did that.

Another time, when I was about three years old, my brother chased me around the house with the vacuum cleaner, telling me he was going to suck me up into it. As young as I was, I believed him and I was terrified.

However, sometimes being the youngest worked in my favor. I remember one time when I was around three or four when I was left with my brother one evening, when my parents and my sister went out for a few hours.

My brother became engrossed in a movie he was watching on TV and was not paying much attention to what I was doing. I went into the bathroom, where I saw that my mother had left the pouch containing her makeup on the sink. I unzipped it and took a lipstick and began writing all over the bathroom mirror with it. I found a tube of some other kind of gunk and began squirting that all around too. When I'd finished making a total mess of the bathroom, I slipped out, quietly shutting the door behind me. I knew I'd done something I shouldn't have been doing, and I wanted to delay the discovery as long as possible.

It's strange, but I can remember doing this very clearly, even all these years later.

Later on, when my parents came home and found the mess, they blamed my brother more than me, as they thought he should have been watching me better.

I'd be interested in hearing some sibling stories from my readers.