The Age Difference Saga

One beautiful Saturday afternoon, Auntie Bisola, my mom's colleague came to visit, it was a pleasure to finally meet her as mom has told us so many things about her, coupled with the fact that she sends Kilishi to us through mom whenever she traveled to Abuja.

I and my siblings were in high spirits to finally meet Auntie Bisola we always spoke to on the phone.

Mom had assigned each of us our fair share of house chores that day like she always did, but this one was on a special level, we had to ensure we did it extraordinarily.

By noon, the whole house was sparkling, meals were prepared and then we wore our favorite outfits in anticipation to meet our mom's friend (rich aunty)😄, as soon as we sat down to catch our breath for a while, I turned on the television to watch my favorite show the "KKB show", in a blink of an eye, the channel was changed by my immediate elder sister, with a surprised look I cried out "Ahn, why did you change the channel now?" "It's boring!! I want to listen to music!" She snapped back.

That was when I realized she wasn't a fan of reality shows, I just swallowed my chill pill before she gets upset and sends me on an errand as a way of punishing me for talking back at her. I just sat quietly in the parlor watching the music channel like that even though I wanted to watch the "KKB show"so badly.

In about an hour, we heard a knock on the door, it was Auntie Bisola, My elder sibling quickly informed my mom of her arrival and when I opened the door, she was about 5ft'7 inches tall, slim in stature, and fair in complexion, Auntie Bisola was very cute and then she blessed us with her heavenly smile.

" Good Afternoon Ma," We all chorused, "My darling babies, how are you? I know Amara is the baby of the house, come and sit on my lap," she said as she handed me a bar of chocolate. I was excited as I received it with love.

We all had a beautiful time with Auntie Bisola, and like her ritual, she brought a bag of goodies for us and handed it to my older sibling before leaving.

As soon as she left, I quickly demanded the goody bag be opened "Big sis, let's see what we have in there."

She didn't hesitate to open it as well and guess what? The goody bag contained beautiful outfits (Two Jean jackets, three shorts, two dresses and a ball skirt, three school bags, and three lunch bags) she also gave us some money to share among ourselves.

This was where the trouble started, it was as though my siblings picked the finest things in the bag and gave me the remnant, I felt cheated, and to make matters worse I was given the least amount of money which I thought would be shared equally initially, this made me teary and even angry, I wanted to fight for my right😃😃 at least for once.

"Why have you guys chosen the best items and given me these?" I cried out. "We are older than you are, so we choose first!!" My older sister replied. "And how about the money, why have you given this amount when you all have taken the finest things first?" "Because of the age difference!" My sister was always defensive having a response to every question I asked.

Source

I wasn't satisfied with her response, so I told my mom about it, she told me that, it's only normal for my siblings to pick before I did, "You are the youngest, so you pick last, maybe if I give birth to another one, then you'll have the opportunity to pick before that one, but for now that is the culture, Why did you think Auntie Bisola handed the goody bag to your eldest sibling?" She summarised and left me with a thought-provoking question and so I was so pained but I had no choice.

Source

Now as I got older, though no other sibling came after me, I've had the opportunity to choose first among my younger cousins when things are being shared in the extended family and I realized that truly, age really counts, after all, I came to the world before them, so I should choose before them too. Hehe Age makes a whole lot of difference.

Thank you for stopping by, till we meet again, this is Amie Geoffrey.