Why are older brothers mean and annoying to their little sisters?

Older brothers have been mean to little sisters from the beginning. I have 3 older brothers that were alternately mean and loving and protective when we were little.
When we were adults, they became my best friends.
This meanness will pass and you two will be friends once you get into your teen years.

The bad thing about it is that we are teenagers!!

I have three older brother too, @chyna. I have three older brothers and one baby brother. My oldest brother lost his fight with cancer four years ago. I would love to have him tease me again, @RockerChick14. He was the funniest person I’ve ever known and I miss him. He was the biggest teaser in the world and thought he ruled the world because he was the oldest. I miss him every day. I hope you enjoy his teasing and his ego for many, many, many years.

It just helps them pass the time. I also had 3 older brothers. The eldest was my knight in shiny armor and then he changed and we were never the same. The second rarely acknowledged my existence and we pretty much stayed there. The third would tease me as well and we have had some fights over the years but we are each others best friends. We both understand each other without much explanation. Sometimes it just has to do with personality clashing.
Many times its just a love hate thing. They love you but think you may be annoying at times or may feel that you don’t like them as much as they like you.

Well… this was partly true in my day, too: I’m a first-born son, and I was followed by three sisters.

But the answer is very nearly always the same, too: She started it!

You gotta quit looking at them that way. You know it irritates the crap out of them.

My mom loved to tell the story of having my four brothers in the station wagon to go to the barber for their usual crew cuts. My oldest brother had the seniority of sitting in the front seat while the other three rode in the back.

She parallel parked in front of Frank’s Barber Shop and everyone exited the car except my oldest brother. He sat in the front passenger seat with a stupid smile on his face. She opened his door and asked him what was up. She said he smiled and said, “Well, I’m not getting my hair cut today. When you are as old as me, you decide when you get a haircut,” looking back with an air of arrogance at the younger siblings.

You had to know my mother to really get the full appreciation of this moment which lives in infamy in my family to this day. He somehow steeled himself from hitting the curbing as a near invisible force propelled him from the car and into the barber shop. Not only did he get a crew cut, he got a crew cut with a fresh shave. My mom said she thought he was becoming a man and needed to have his whiskers taken down a bit that day.

Bobby is laughing in heaven reading about that day with my our Mom.

If your Bros see someone picking on you that guy is going to be in for a bad day. Only older brothers can pick on sisters. All others hands off.

My sister was younger than me and always jealous of my good grades and behaviour that did not annoy or worry our parents. She blamed me for making her look bad and she still seems to resent me. I am 59 and she is 56. She refuses to keep in touch or to talk with me. I don’t know that I was ever mean to her or intentionally did things to annoy her.

I guess it may be all a matter of whose point of view.

Because they can.

My younger brother was a very nice and kind older brother to our younger sister.

However, she remembers me as aloof and indifferent. There is an almost ten year gap between us, and we led very different lives.

Recently we recently found some old 16 mm. films that showed me being very sweet to her, patiently dragging her up and down a hill behind our house in a little red wagon. She says that she has no memory of that. Without the films, neither would I.

It goes the other way round too you know. I guess it has to do with some kind of hierarchy, the idea that the first born call the shots and the second must just tag along obediently. Just be indifferent and things will smooth out eventually.

@ZEPHYRA Through my own personal observation older brothers are more likely to be physically abusive (I use abusive lightly, because afterall they are just little children themselves) to their younger sister. That does not seem to happen often when a girl is the older child. Brothers tend to be rough and tumble with each other, but I think boys fight back better, and are not as emotionally affected by it.

I think more often than not the younger siblings tend to be jealous of older siblings, not the older sibling is trying to control the younger one. Part of it is the age of each child. The younger one is more likely to want the older sibs attention, and they try to get it in their young annoying way if the older sibling isn’t inclined to give attention. Then the older sibling reacts in a way that seems mean or short tempered. I see this dynamic all the time.

I agree being indifferent is a good answer, but younger siblings seem to have a very hard time doing it, especially girls.

Because it’s their job :)

But it’s also their job to protect you if other kids in school think they can pick on you.

Besides, now that you’re all teenagers, you never know when one of their friends might just catch your eye or vice versa. It’s also nice to know that if you end up dating a guy with a scuzzy reputation (of which you are unaware) they’ve got your back and will let him know that he’d better treat you right or he has them to answer to.

An interesting little tidbit here: before Michelle Obama was married, she would bring any guys she was serious about to a family event including her big brother for final evaluation.

Evidently, he could tell a lot about a guy’s character by his style of basketball play (did he cheat or bully? Was he a glory hog or a team player? that kind of stuff) So, Barack passed the test with flying colors and the rest is history :)
I’m sure she endured her fair share of teasing from her older brother when they were kids. That’s just how they are.

But hopefully they’re also an ally and a protection for you in the coming years as well. Big brothers can come in handy in many unexpected ways you will likely discover.

It helps them release the awkward sexual tension.

yikes

It’s enticing.

I have an older brother who is less than a year older than me. When you have a sibling that’s almost the same age as you, they’re are many more fights happening in the car. Brothers can act as if their sisters are invisible, and they can be very mean to you. I am not saying that all brothers are this way, though my brother is CERTAINLY like that. Its easier just to ignore what names they call you, or, my personal favorite, just say ‘You’re rubber I’m glue whatever you say bounces off me and sticks back to you’. It’s like as if our friendship from when we were younger had just disappeared. One day when I was 5 years old, someone from my brothers class called me a sucker. My brother defended me and he always will. If you really think about it, they’re really not that bad.