Di, host of Pensivity101, is once again standing in for Melanie, of Sparks from a Combustible Mind, for today’s Truthful Tuesday prompt. This week Di wants to know…
Are you an only child or do you have siblings? Would you prefer to be the opposite to what you are?
I am the closest thing to being an only child without actual being an only child.
Let me unpack that for you. I am one of three children. I had two older sisters, making me the youngest, the baby of the family. But even with two older siblings, I felt like an only child because my oldest sister was 15 years older than me, and my middle sister was nine years older than me.
I was told that my oldest sister used to wheel me around the neighborhood in a baby carriage when I was an infant and tell all of the neighbors that I was her baby. And she refused to confess who my father, according to her tale, was. She was the scandal of our neighborhood.
My other sister suffered from middle child syndrome. She hated my older sister for being the first born and she hated me for being the new kid in town. And for being a boy, something my father was very happy about after having two girls.
So while my oldest sister treated me as if I was her own son, my next older sister basically ignored me. And that’s why I feel that I was, for all intents and purposes, an only child. With two siblings.
This, That, and the Other 
Sad. It does sound like you were more of an only child, as I was…
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I can imagine!
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Wow!! What a story! Did you know that Jack Nicholson and Bobby Darin both believed their older sisters were their sisters when they were actually their mothers? I guess that sort of cover-up was pretty common at one time.
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Hmm. Maybe my oldest sister didn’t just pretend to be my mother! Something to think about!
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🤯
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Oh, that sucks, Fandango, that you felt like an only child. I got a good laugh about your oldest sister pretending you were her baby. ❤
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I have you beat! I have five brothers and two sisters. My youngest sister is 14 years older than me. She is my only remaining sibling now as all my others have passed on. I truly was an only child for most of my youth.
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Yep, you definitely one-upped me! 😆
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How dim of your ‘middle’ sister. I have two younger siblings and now we’re cordial to each other, but stay out of each others’ lives. We’re all pretty diverse in opinion and lifestyle choices.
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Melanie!!! Welcome back. So good to hear from you. How are you feeling?
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Other Brother contacts me more often than he did which is quite funny because it is always when his wife is out! We’re chatting away quite happily and then he suddenly cuts the conversation short when he hears her key in the lock!!
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Does his wife not like you?
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No, and I can’t stand her either, so that’s fair. She upset my Mum ( a definite No No) and is as two faced as they come. OB dances to her tune, and the only reason they moved was so that she could be nearer her children and the grandchildren. OB hardly sees his own now.
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That’s a shame.
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That doesnt sound like much fun 🙁
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The youngest four children on my mom’s side, three cousins and I, all feel like only children. I actually am one, except my mom was like a spoiled older sister. My mom’s twin has two daughters, but they were six years apart. The one more my age was expected to do a lot of looking after her little sister (both before and after their parents’ divorce). I have a photo wherein I’m holding the little sister, and her sister my age (slightly older than myself) is standing next to me looks so happy. I didn’t do that a lot. The other granddaughter our age (a year to two younger than we) had three older siblings, not near her in age; the oldest is a sister, the other two were brothers. The oldest girl was into softball and cheerleading. The youngest, arts and crafts, a lot of reading, a bit of history. Their brothers hung out not infrequently with the girl cousin slightly older but closest to me in age. We were all sort of tomboys, but that cousin was on another level. She would run around the neighborhood with those guys like she was in a shootout. I have cousins on my dad’s side, too. One is an only child who is a daughter, and two are sisters (one a few months older than I and one a few months younger than I). The older of the two is the oldest of all those cousins (including her two little brothers and a couple other boys), and she took it upon herself to play Mommy when we had littler girl cousins. I missed her but got on to my camaraderie with her little sister. There were hard feelings when that doting cousin abandoned the little girl who had been the youngest in order to obsess with the newest youngest. I guess I always felt in the middle.
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I also tend to feel like an only child with siblings. As with you, I am the only male and have 2 sisters; however, I am the firstborn, and I was truly an only child for 11 years.
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Yeah, if you were 11 years older than your next sibling, you were an only child in your formative years.
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Aw well it’s too bad that you’re not close 😦 That was a super cute story about your sister pushing you around in a stroller and pretending you were her baby, though 🙂
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Thanks!
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I am the youngest of three siblings. My brother is ten years older than me and my sister sixteen. Sadly, my sister lost her battle to cancer last year, and it feels to raw to post more.
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So your situation was similar to mine, with a big age gap between you and your siblings. Both of my older sisters are gone now.
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My Dad was the opposite… older than his two brothers by 12 years I believe. Me and my sister were much closer at three years apart, but I never really wanted to be an only child.
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