One time my 18 year old cousin went to our house. My sister, my cousin, and I went to my room to talk. We talked about high school and college, what it is like and what mistakes they made. After awhile, my sister said, “Ethan, you are getting a lot of information about high school and college,¨ and she was right. Then, I realized my sister can have a big influence on my life — but not just from her stories and advice. She can also impact my life by whether she spends time with me and my family or not. Another way she can impact my life is by what foods she eats, because it can affect what foods the whole family eats. Finally, my older sister can even change how my parents treat me based on what she does.  In all of these ways and many others, older siblings can impact younger siblingś lives.    

The first way that older siblings can impact younger siblingś life is by whether they spend time together.  For example, one time my family and I went to Sea Ranch. The best things to do there is swim in the swimming pool and play tennis on the tennis courts. All the most enjoyable games we play involve four people — me, my sister, my Mom, and my Dad.  This is because we play two versus two tennis matches and a game in the pool that needs at least four people. The problem was that my sister just got a phone.  She decided to use her phone instead of swimming and playing tennis even though they are in a great center that was designed by a famous architect. After a day of using her phone all day my parents took it away and made her go outside. The days she played those games with us, we had four people so it was more enjoyable. The day we did not have her with us, it was less enjoyable. A lot of times when she does other things instead of being with our family, it ends up being less entertaining and lively. This shows that life can be more or less joyful depending on how much time an older sibling spends with you and your family.   

Another way that older siblings can impact younger siblings’ lives is by what foods they eat and like. One example of this is when my sister ate everything or even was vegetarian, one of the restaurants we would often go to was Rose’s. My sister could still eat the pizza and pasta. Then, she decided to become vegan. Vegans can’t eat six categories of food. They are meat, poultry (as in birds), fish/seafood, eggs, bee products (like honey), and dairy (like milk or cheese). It was 3 years before we even went back to Rose’s, since all the pizzas had cheese and all the pastas had egg in them. I actually forgot it was a restaurant. Three years was how long it took for her to become vegetarian again. Now that she is a vegetarian, we don’t eat there as much as we used to because it was so long that we now don’t like it too much. This has happened with a lot of restaurants and foods we used to go to. This shows that younger siblings can like/eat different foods based on what their older sibling likes.

My final example of a way that older siblings can impact younger siblings’ lives is by what their actions are that lead to your parents changing their parenting. For example, my sister got a phone when she was 11 but then used it too much. Our parents tried to get her to do other things, but all she wanted was a phone. Then, because of her phone she started to get worse grades because of not doing work, go vegan because of animal cruelty videos on youtube, and get a habit of greed by taking all the treats and snacks we bought for herself. My parents were so tired of it. They did not want to make the same mistake. Right now I’m about 11 and a half and I don’t have a phone. The article “When Kids Get Their First Cell Phones Around the World,” by Jacqueline Howard of CNN says that around 45% of kids 10 to 12 in the US have their own smartphones. My dad says I should get a phone when I’m 18. My mom says I need it for middle school if I go out by myself more, though. This shows that younger siblings can get parented in different ways based on the actions of their older sibling.

These three reasons are why I realize older siblings are an important part of a younger sibling’s life. If I didn’t have a sister, me and my life would be completely different. So could a younger sibling’s life. After everything, the main thing I learned is that sibling relationships can change a lot, but older siblings will always be important to younger siblings.