When I was younger, my parents, like many good parents, liked to tell me “no” to things. Being the curious kid that I was, I would usually ask “why?”. The reason I hated the most was “because I said so.” To me, that never made sense, nor did it satisfy my curiosity. The second worst reason (to me) was “because we don’t want to set a precedent for your sisters.” I hated that reason too. What’s a precedent, I used to wonder? I’m my own person, and the oldest…just tell them “no” if my sisters ask! It wasn’t until recently that I really understood the precedent problem, and why my parents were worried about it.  I also realized that my parents’ position on that had officially changed.

My 3 younger sisters, or the “second generation” as we call them, get away with murder compared to us older 4 children. It’s funny to see how much parents mellow out in the course of raising their children. I’ve seen this in multiple large families. Parents are usually really tough on the older children, and by the time they get to the youngest couple children, they’re letting them do whatever. We always joke that by the time my youngest sister is 16, my dad will pull into the driveway with a bright, new Corvette for her.

Anyway, my sister Mary (the 5th child in our family) just had her “sweet 16″ (according to her) birthday this past week. And I mean week. She had a total of 4 birthday parties (lunches, dinners, and parties) on different days of the week to commemorate this blessed event (in her eyes). It was amazing. We just kept celebrating, and celebrating, and celebrating.

It was actually fun (what week-long party isn’t?), but I think it wore my parents out. Also, my dad didn’t realize the damage that had been done. It hit him near the end of the celebration week as he overheard my youngest 2 sisters talking about what kind of 16th birthday parties THEY are going to have. I finally understood what my parents were trying to tell me all of those years with the “precedent” thing.

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