Parents demand that their 19-year-old daughter rearrange her work schedule to drive her 14-year-old brother to his soccer practice, she refuses, and they accuse her of not wanting to 'help the family'

Should older kids take responsibility for their younger siblings on a regular basis? The short answer is: No. Can older kids help around the house and with their siblings? Yes, as long as it's controlled and they still have time for their own homework, chores, and time to just be children. When they are teenagers or older, they also have other responsibilities to attend to, so the amount of help they can provide usually declines. But some parents seem to forget that the responsibility to take care of the children is theirs, not their older kids, and end up putting too much pressure on them ot be substitute parents. When I was a teenager, I had a friend whose mom got remarried and had kids with her new husband. My friend was about fourteen when the first kid was born, and then they had two more, the three of them in less than 4 years. The mom was way in over her head, and she had her eldest daughter help out. She loved her new siblings, of course, and she was almost old enough to be their mom herself, but key part: she was not. She took care of feeding them, changing diapers, bathing them, putting them to sleep, and generally, making sure they were happy and healthy. Now, babies ar…

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