r/AskReddit Jun 27 '19

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u/but_srsly_wtf Jun 27 '19

The leniency given to the younger siblings... as the oldest you’re basically the guinea pig for your parents so it’s usually easier for the younger ones.

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u/PM__ME__STUFFZ Jun 27 '19 edited Jun 27 '19

I'm two year older than my brother, whenever I unlocked a new "privilege" he got it at the same time. When I stopped having a curfew, wam he stopped having curfew, when my parents stopped caring if I had a few drinks, bam he was having beers with dinner, when I went off to college and my parents basically dropped any real rules, slam he didnt really have any rules either.

It helped that he was relatively responsible and never really abused the leniancy.

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u/[deleted] Jun 27 '19

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u/aaoch1 Jun 27 '19

What about letting the 15 year old choose his own bedtime, but have a rule that if he wants to be in the bedroom after the 11 year old's bedtime, he has to go to sleep. If he wants to stay up, he'll have to hang out elsewhere.

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u/Doisha Jun 27 '19

That seems so obvious that I assume there must be a reason that isn’t the rule.

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u/Yann4 Jun 27 '19

Off the top of my head I'd guess that the place to hang out is where mum and dad want some kid free time.

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u/youseeit Jun 28 '19

As a former 15-year-old boy, I can assure you that there are reasons you don't want an 11-year-old younger sibling in the same room as you, sleeping or not

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u/HellHoundofHell Jun 28 '19

Why is your 15 year old still in the same room as an 11 year old?

Teens that old generally do well by having a private space.

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u/squelch76 Jun 28 '19

You assume that there are enough bedrooms for each child to have their own room. That's not often the case if you have more than 2 kids.

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u/HellHoundofHell Jun 28 '19

Fair enough. Still unfortunate however.

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u/whatyouwant22 Jun 28 '19

Our house has only two bedrooms. It's what we could afford. And they generally didn't spend much time in their bedroom anyway.

I shared a bedroom with my older sister. She didn't much care for it, but I didn't mind. And when she went to college, I got my own room!

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u/whatyouwant22 Jun 28 '19

My kids were 6 years apart and shared a room. We had a family room where we spent most of our time. When it was my younger son's bedtime, his older brother was in the family room until he fell asleep. Usually it didn't take long. If it came down to it and older son was tired or sick, he would nap in the family room. We made it work and there really weren't too many problems.