For a family that's as close yours, your cousins are more than just relatives you see once a year; they're like siblings you love spending time with. Growing up, you basically did everything together. You played dress-up with Grandma's clothes, hosted tea parties with your stuffed animals, and always kept each other entertained at the kids' table. Each person had their own role in the crew, and being the youngest cousin meant that you were treated a little differently than the rest.
You were the baby of the family, and to an outsider, it may have looked like you received all the special treatment. Of course, you know there was a lot more to it than that. You tried so hard to fit in with your older, more mature cousins, and it was a constant struggle getting your voice heard when choosing the best games to play.
You may have been the baby, but being the youngest also came with these nine things that you know all too well. Actually, a lot of these things you dealt with are the reasons why you are the person you are today. So, you're forever grateful for a group of cousins to call forever friends, and for embracing your special role in the crew.
Watching your older cousins go through many firsts before you — like high school, dating, and graduating college — always gave you someone to look up to. You could go to any one of them for great advice and major life lessons. To this day, you still see them as great role models.
As the baby of the family, you believed everything your cousins told you. (I totally believed my cousins when they told me that if I didn't hold my breath while driving by a cemetery, a ghost would fly up my nose.)
Playtime was always a major struggle for you. You almost never got to pick what games to play. It honestly made you totally chill and able to go with the flow, but at the time, it was frustrating never getting your way.
Each year, you were able to see another one of your older cousins leave the kids' table for the prestigious adult table during holidays and family dinners. You totally thought you were just as mature, but you learned that everyone has to wait their turn.
Not only did your family baby you, but you also got the same treatment from your cousins. Even if the next one up was only a few months older than you, you were still treated like a little kid.
Probably the best benefit of being the youngest cousin was that you could use your adorable charm to get away with mostly anything. You could just whip out those cute little sad eyes to get your mom or aunt to sympathize with you. You also probably got a few extra cookies from grandma that no one else got.
Since you may have been left out of playtime at times, just by being the youngest, you were actually able to spend more time with your older relatives. If there was a game like Mario Kart that only had four controllers, as the odd man out, I hung out with my mom, aunt, and grandma as they talked. It was nice spending time with them for change, you weren't viewed as the annoying tag-along.
Being the youngest meant that sometimes, you were left out. You used this time to get comfortable with your independence. I know that I'm a lot more comfortable doing things on my own, because I was the youngest of my cousins.
Another benefit of having so many older cousins was that you always had someone there to protect you. They looked out for you on a regular basis, which meant that you never felt scared trying new things, or confronting a playground bully with them on your side.
