Eldest Daughter Syndrome
Becoming an adult as a child.
Nowadays, the notion "Eldest Daughter Syndrome" establishes a common topic for certain content creators on the social media. It's not a formal diagnosis but the fact that the contents, which are produced under this thread, happen to get evaluated as "relatable" by many social media users, who are mostly the eldest daughter of their own families, makes the whole topic even more interesting. As the eldest daughter of my family, I also couldn't help but deep dive into this topic.
Being the eldest daughter, comes with its visible and invisible responsibilities, expectations. Both of those things shape the individual's personality and mental health. "Eldest Daughter Syndrome" notion is being used to describe this whole situation.
It's a known fact, that the oldest child, especially the firstborn daughter of a family, finds themselves in a system, in which they have to play the ultimate role of the "role model" to their siblings, whether they like it or not. According to some psychologists, this situation is related to the birth order of the children. Based on this, firstborn children happen to have more responsibilities, which ask for more resilience.
Being a role model to the younger ones is a harder responsibility than it seems, which can also cause pressure and the endless chasing of perfection. Some experts state, that the eldest daughters, which happen to grow up under the influence of all the mentioned factors, may miss out on their childhood because of the adult responsibilities they are imposed by their families. These can contain parenting their younger siblings and parents, or being brought up with the expectation of a high degree of maturity by their parents. Throughout the time, the eldest daughters also can be seen as the problem solver of the whole family, even by their parents.
Of course, every individual can have different experiences about this topic. The aspects, which are mentioned in this article, carry the goal to reflect people's thoughts, who may be experiencing this situation and enlighten them.