Being the child of the youngest...
By patgalca
@patgalca (18180)
Orangeville, Ontario
May 6, 2007 10:02pm CST
I am the youngest in my family. I am well separated by age from my siblings. All of their children are adults. That is, they are all over 20 years of age. Some are married, some have live-in partners. My children are 10 and 14. They come to family events and they are the youngest there with no one to really talk to. They get bored and they just want to go home. That is what happened tonight. My oldest said she never wants to go to another family gathering. To make matters worse my sister (she was having a 30th birthday party for her son) invited neighbours in - 2 older couples and one older gentleman. We don't know these people. Even I was uncomfortable and was anxious to leave but didn't want to be rude.
How do I handle these situations with my kids? They did ask if there was another television in the house somewhere so they could go off and watch TV, but the only one was in the livingroom where we were socializing and some of us eating. At least at my parents house they can go to one of two different television rooms. I feel so bad for these kids. I hated being the youngest and never having anything in common with my own siblings. I thought time would have made things easier as I caught up with them. But it seems I will never catch up with them.
I can't leave my girls at home from family gatherings. What am I supposed to do?
1 person likes this
2 responses
@PackratsHouse (238)
• United States
7 May 07
I always had my girls pack a backpack with things to keep them occupied. They would bring books, music, homework, things like that. Then when they were bored they got something out to do. No one at the outing thought they were rude. They just appreciated that they came.
@jennybianca (12912)
• Australia
7 May 07
I think it will come to a point where you will need to leave them hgome, at least the youngest one. Perhaps not at night though.
My daughter is 14 also, & is usually happy to go to family outings. Her cousins ae a little younger & she doesn't mind playing with them. Of course, they are not at most of the family functions we go to.
What my daughter does is bring a novel, as she is an avid reader. She will quite happily sit in a restuarant reading a novel.
I get bored with some of the real oldies functions; I even got bored at my brothers bbq.
So when it gets to the point where there are no people with someting in common with my daughter, & she doesn't want to go, I am not going to make her.
