Anybody who’s an oldest child knows the pain and fun that comes with having Younger Siblings to torture. Sorry- to take care of. You’re supposed to be the responsible one, the mature one, but what happens when all you want to do is play video games? Here are ten problems gamers who have younger siblings can all relate to.

1. Having to share your games and consoles with your younger siblings

Image Source: PBS

It’s the worst! Sometimes you just want to play your games in peace for 10, maybe 20 hours in a row. But no, your younger sibling comes up and says, “Hey, give me a piece of that.” You used to have complete free reign over the PS4/PC, but now you have to share it?!?!?! No, thank you very much.

And the worst part is, they always get your controller and/or keyboard/mouse really gross and sticky afterwards.

2. “Mooooom!”, AKA why you have to share in the first place

If you even think about not sharing your games or the PS4 with your younger sibling, you’ll soon find yourself corrected. All it takes is a single warbling cry of “Mom!” before your mother descends on the living room with a broom in hand and righteous fury in her eyes.

“Sharing is caring” is how the phrase originally goes, but you’re pretty sure it should be “Sharing is necessary to avoid getting grounded” instead.

3. Getting paranoid when you let them play your games

You know your save file in Pokemon Ruby? The one where you’ve nearly completed your Pokedex after hours and hours of hunting down each and every Pokemon, and now you’ve just got less than ten left? Yeah. That one. Now imagine your younger brother pestering you to let them play your Gameboy.

“Fine,” you say. “If you trade away my Pokemon I’ll get Dad to disown you.”

“Okay!” He says, and grabs the Gameboy from your hands.

Two hours later, when you figure he’s had enough time on your Gameboy, you go to take it from him. Only– hang on. Why’s your character back in the Petalburg Woods? That’s all the way back at the start of– Oh no. Ohhhh no.

Maybe he hasn’t saved yet? You go back to the starting screen, hope and dread rising in your throat. Nope. Your beautiful save file is gone, saved over in the prime of its life by a new game that your brother started.

Forget disowning, you now have a murder to plan.

4. Justifying every game purchase that looks even mildly objectionable

Want to play Grand Theft Auto V? Good luck! Anything that looks like it might even have a whiff of violence or sexuality will be outright banned from your house. You’ll have to swear to only play it when your 10 year old sister isn’t within a 10km radius, when the moon is half full and blue, and when the national anthem has played in your house at least three times in an hour.

It doesn’t even matter that she has zero interest in the game, or in watching you play it, because she’s too busy playing The Sims. That’s just how it is, man.

5. Getting glimpses into your younger siblings’ potential sociopathy

Curious about how much time your younger sister is spending in The Sims, you go to see what her save file is like. It’s not snooping if she’s playing it on your computer anyway, right?

You open her neighbourhood, expecting to see something about her favourite boyband, or whatever it is prepubescent girls do in The Sims. When you open a house to get a closer look though, the first thing you see is a whole bunch of red diamonds. And then you realise that the entire household is dying, because they’re trapped in a room with no doors. There are pee puddles all over the floor, multiple gravestones, and maybe a raging fire or two going on.

The worst part is finding out that the Sims in that room are all based on your family. Should you be worried?

6. Babysitting duty? More like time to play 2P games.

Easiest. Babysitting job. Ever.

Protip: If your younger siblings are young enough, they probably won’t realise if the controller isn’t actually connected.

7. Say goodbye to your street cred

Your Steam profile is set to private, not because you’re necessarily a private person, but because you have no choice. If it wasn’t, the questions about your Steam library would start coming in. “Why do you have so many shitty free games in your Steam library?” “What the hell is Putt-Putt Goes to the Moon?!”

One answer to all those questions: Younger siblings.

Sometimes, you don’t even know half of what’s happening in your Steam library. You just hope you don’t open Steam one day to find something like Nekopara.

8. On that note… your Steam wallet

You live in pretty much perpetual fear that the hard-earned money in your Steam wallet will one day disappear, spent on stuff like Save the Furries. Kind of like how parents need to put locks on their Google Play or iTunes accounts so their kids don’t spend all their money on apps. Except you’re not a parent, and this is your pocket money we’re talking about here!

9. Speaking of pocket money….

So you save up, slowly, bit by bit, scrounging up your pocket money until finally, you’ve done it. You’ve saved up enough money for a 3DS. Success! Your parents didn’t buy this, so you don’t have to share it with your younger siblings. It’s all yours, your precious. You’re savouring the envy on your younger brother’s face, it makes you feel good inside.

Then your parents come back with another 3DS for your younger brother, “to make things fair.”

10. Say goodbye to an accurate MMR

If you play any games like Dota 2 or Overwatch or League of Legends, you know what MMR is. You also know that there’s little to no chance that any MMR the game has assigned to your account is accurate. Sure, you’ve ground it into your younger sister’s head that she’s only allowed to touch quickplay or play vs ai, but still. It affects the hidden MMR, which affects your life.

But in the end….

When it comes down to it, you wouldn’t trade your younger siblings for the world. Sure, they may mess up your gaming fun, but you know you’ll always have someone to play the Luigi to your Mario. And that’s what really matters.

The post 10 Things You Have to Suffer When You’re a Gamer With Younger Siblings appeared first on Reboot Reload.