Community: Real Life

Sisterly love


Holly

Holly, 19, is studying magazine journalism at Southampton Solent University. She enjoys shopping and is obsessed by shoes and celebrity spotting.

Holly can't cope with the fact her little sister is getting older and attracting lots of boys. Why can't she just stay young and innocent?

When you are 16, the world is your oyster and you feel invincible. You take all the opportunities available to you and think you're old enough to see as many boys as you want. That may be true, but not if it's my baby sister! In my eyes, younger sisters are not allowed to do those kinds of things.

Although she is old enough to make her own decisions, as her big sister I feel under obligation to protect her from everything.  At the moment she seems to be dating as many boys as she can find and feels no guilt for seeing more than one of them at a time.

The other day she brought home her newest boyfriend. Big mistake. I promised I would be nice to him, but as soon as I got the chance to get him on his own I warned him to keep his hands off her. Needless to say he looked terrified. It's not that I'm jealous of her. When I was 16 I was guilty of doing the same things. But I guess I still think of her as the seven year-old cutie she used to be and I can't shake off the feeling that no one is allowed to touch her.

Since she set up an account on Bebo the situation has become even worse.  Seventeen year-old boys are commenting on her photos and telling her how gorgeous she is (or words to that effect). When I read these comments I feel like hunting down every single one of them and telling them that she is off limits - forever.

"I guess I still think of her as the seven year-old cutie she used to be and I can't shake off the feeling that no one is allowed to touch her."

My stress levels rose to breaking point when I found out that one of these boys attended the same university as me. I knew what year he was in, what course he was on, and vowed that I would find him and make sure he never saw the light of another day. Of course I didn't seek him out and even if I had I would never have been that extreme. I probably just would have given him a piece of my mind.

After talking to other friends who have younger siblings I realised it is not only me who feels this way about protecting our little sisters. It is, however, only me who feels this strongly about it. Everyone else seems to grumble and then let it be. I tend to feel a little more aggressive about the whole thing.

I think one reason that I feel like this is because I have a fairly small family and like to keep them all close. Another reason is that for many years I had the edge on my sister. I knew more things about the opposite sex than she did and prided myself on this. It also made me feel grown up - but now I've definitely been knocked down a peg or two.

I simply don't understand how all these boys can be interested in my little sister. She's cute, innocent and most importantly, mine! As on older sister it's my duty to keep her locked away from the world and it's her duty to tell the boys to go away. Unfortunately, this doesn't seem to be working. If anything, it makes me realise that I'm just getting old, which is another scary thought in itself.

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