Youngest Child Distress

These glasses crack me up - just like the little girl who is wearing them.  Oh yes, she knows she's funny. 

Must be the "youngest child syndrome" where you seek attention by being a goofball. I can relate. I'm the youngest child too.  We had a bit of "youngest child distress" yesterday when David got to go off to his class and Ana got to go to a friend's house.  Abby wanted to go somewhere, but alas, there was no one who invited her anywhere.  She was simply "too little" to do anything like her siblings. 

I can acutely remember watching my older siblings get to go off and do all sorts of amazingly fun looking things while I couldn't because I was "too little".  A good example: we took a family vacation one year when I was around second grade and went to a place that had go-karts.  They had the absolutely coolest go-kart track you have ever seen in your life, full of twists and turns, and even an overpass and underpass.  It was pure joy on wheels.  You had to be a certain height to be able to drive on that track by yourself.  Everyone in our family was that height... except for me.  I was stuck doing the stupid baby track that only went in one tiny, stupid, little circle.  And the go-karts didn't even go fast on that baby track.  It was so dumb.  I loathed every minute I was stuck on the baby track with other babies who weren't cool enough to do the big track.  I was very angry.  Life was so unfair.  I watched, green with envy, as the people on the cool track whizzed gaily by, twisting and turning on the track, as if they hadn't a care in the world.  Didn't they understand the level of suffering I was enduring?  I did nothing wrong to deserve this unfairness!  I was almost the required height.  I knew I could handle the driving part.  Didn't they understand that I was a resposible, young girl who could handle herself out on the fast track?  What difference did one little inch make in my maturity level?  Oh please, please, please, let me drive on that track!  Why can't anyone understand the angst I am experiencing?  Does my pain not bother you?  Why does no one seem to care or even notice?  I think I still may have issues to deal with from this vacation.

So back to Abby.  Whenever she starts to suffer from "youngest child distress", I get flashbacks to my own "youngest child distress" and can instantly relate to the feelings she is experiencing.  So what did we do yesterday to alleviate the distress?  Since Abby couldn't do anything "fun" like she wanted to do, we decided to go to our local diner and have lunch together.  David and Ana didn't get to go and have fun with us.  Poor them.  We had a yummy lunch together and all symptoms of "youngest child distress" instantly vanished.