People would be angry/bitter at uncles & aunties for not taking care of them but not with the parents who had them with no future plans.
Your parents have 8 kids but your uncle with 4 kids is wicked because his children travel for summer when you haven’t paid school fees. How?
“A friend’s elder sister was married off at a young age so he could go to the University. He’s working now and is burdened with raising his sister’s children and the other kids his parents kept having while he was at University (the youngest is barely 6). It’s a very long, lonely road ahead for him.”
That said, Black Tax is EVIL! It’s not older/richer child responsibility. It’s not love or duty. It’s not parental enjoyment of the fruits of labour. It’s EVIL. This thing, where parents heap their heavy burden of other children on the first child or the child who earns more.
Now that you’re done with school, you must take care of the family. Now that you’re a banker, you must start paying fees for your younger ones. Now that you’re this, now that you’re that.
A first daughter has been married for barely three months. Her husband happens to be quite well-off.
She asked her siblings not to make any demands from the man, as it won’t tell well of their family.
But her younger sister believes she’s wrong, and wants to go over her head and ask her brother-in-law for money.
After all, the man is generous and will give if asked. Besides, he should be catering to his wife’s family of five. Not to mention siblings who become entitled, lazy and oh so demanding.
A friend asked if a certain federal university in Nigeria charged 200k per session. That’s what her younger brother asks for each year – minus books, practicals, exam fees, photosynthesis and parallelogram
She’s working her butt off abroad, slaving for ungrateful, thieving, lying twats! On the rare occasions that she complains, her parents throw out one proverb about how the head of a first child is for the younger siblings to stand on.
My heart breaks for the mostly oldest children in their forties and late thirties, who haven’t had the chance to build investment portfolios, have reasonable savings, find love and marriage, buy themselves new things, build their dreams – because they’re caring for younger ones.
Written by Eketi Edima Ette
I completely agree with this post.