Many of you first-borns and middle-borns reading this article are wondering, “What have last-borns got to complain about? They were and still are the families’ babies. More often than not, they are daddy’s and mum’s favorite. Aren’t they?” There no denying, last-borns enjoy a certain level of pampering and coddling. These wrappings of cotton wool have rained a bad reputation upon last-borns. It is time this sort of stigmatization came to an end. You’ll today learn some of the ways in which a last-born must pay the price of coming last.

Experience Unending Comparisons

Last-borns are bound to find an already set bar. As the last-born, nothing you do is new. Nothing attracts sparkling interest. Right from when you utter your first words to when you graduate with a first class honors. The entire family (you excluded) has already done that, been there. All you get is a “Well done sweetie!” Now, that is the soft part. The hard part sets in when you realize that you live in the shadows of your sibling(s).

As the last-born, you are expected to do everything better than your siblings did. Call it the “If so and so (your sibling) did it, you can do it better.” Even your hobbies are to a large extent not your own. You have to have one that supersedes your siblings’. Each of your actions and their related outcomes are weighted relative to your siblings’. Welcome to the world of constant comparisons.

Become the Household’s Servant

Being a last-born strong-arms you into a combination of your older siblings’ and parents’ power. You are expected to follow orders without questions. Parents will skip everyone in the birth order to assign you an errand. Your gender is insignificant to the kinds of errands. You are born to serve, no questions asked. Definitely not to mentioning the consequences of insubordination.

Some of the errands are not only exhaustive but worse still, demeaning. Your siblings will not easily allow you to play with them. Neither will they agree to you using their stuff. Not unless they will exploit you (like by eating your candy) or mess with you in return. You end up being their guinea pig. The worst pain of all comes when you want to fight back, but you can’t.

A certain situation has been building in the Parsonage for the last several months. At first, I did not think it too serious but alas, we have reached a terrible impasse.

It started a few months ago when I came home, walked into the house and was hit in the face so hard I almost passed out. At the time, I was hoping I would pass out, but no such luck.

I think everybody knows what it is like to be hit unexpectedly by something you do not actually expect. I guess that is why it is called unexpectedly. It happened to me and I am not sure I am over it yet.

Even though I have been married 46 years, of which most of it has been happily, I did not see this one coming. Just when you think you have your spouse figured out, they do something off the radar. Every husband knows exactly what I am talking about.

This makes it hard to buy Christmas and birthday presents. What they liked last year is not what they like this year. I remember buying my wife a watch one year for Christmas of which she was so delighted that for the next four years after I bought her a watch for Christmas. How was I supposed to know she only wanted one watch!

I think we hit one of those impasses.

Walking into the house, I was hit with the horrific smell of broccoli cooking on the stove. I do not know if you ever smelt such a smell as that but if you are not prepared for it and even if you are prepared for it, it can smack you in the face like you have never been smacked in the face before.

When I came to myself and gathered what little composure I could find, I queried the Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage who was in the kitchen.

“What is that awful smell?”

“I don’t know, have you taken a shower yet?”

After being married for 46 years, I know when to respond to a question and when not to. I knew if I responded to this question the way I wanted to respond to this question, the smell of broccoli would be the least of my worries at the time.

“No,” I said gathering a little bit of manliness about me, “Something in this house smells dreadful. I smelled it as soon as I walked in the door.”

Then she chuckled. I hate it when she chuckles.

“Oh, that must be the wonderful aroma of broccoli cooking on the stove. Isn’t it marvelous?”

Adhering to my rules about questions, I tossed that one aside and opted for another one.

“You’re not cooking broccoli for supper tonight, are you?”

I was hoping she would catch my attitude of disdain and disgust in this question. Obviously, for whatever reason, she did not catch the drift.

“Yes,” she said as chipper as I have ever heard her chip, “I thought I would surprise you with a wonderful dish of broccoli for supper tonight, to go along with our pork chops.”

Can you live with a person for so long and not know what they like or do not like? Nobody has to be around me for five minutes before they will understand that broccoli and I have had a feud that has been going on since before the Hatfield’s and McCoy’s.

“But I thought you knew I do not like broccoli?”

“Oh, that,” she said with another chuckle, “I just thought you were joking.”

Nobody jokes about broccoli, especially me.

Then a brilliant idea reverberated between my ears. I thought I could take advantage of this situation and sneak in something forbidden in our kitchen and house for that matter, a rare delicacy.

“I will then run to the store and get some fresh Apple Fritters for our dessert.”

I figured if she wants to put in front of me broccoli the least she can do is allow me an Apple Fritter or two.

In a moment, all the chipper drained from her person and she looked at me and said, “Apple Fritters are not allowed in this house.”

“Let’s negotiate,” I said as calmly as I have ever been in my life. “I will allow you to eat broccoli tonight if you allow me an Apple Fritter for my dessert.”

I wonder if there is a husband living today, that has ever successfully negotiated with his wife.

“This is how we will negotiate, we will have broccoli tonight without any Apple Fritter. I am only thinking of your health.”

The way she glared at me I knew negotiations were off the table at this time and in its place was some steaming broccoli.

What I am going to do is sneak behind her back and eat two, not one but two, Apple Fritters and I will savor every bite.

If you want to make your family day a great day this year, make sure you plan some activities that can help you achieve this goal. Given below are 6 ideas that can help you get the most out of this day.

Enjoy a breakfast

In the morning, if you have some spare time, you can cut a toast or some fruits, such as watermelon or apple into pieces for breakfast. For this purpose, you can make use of a cookie cutter. Alternatively, you can bake some muffins as well. It’s a good idea to make muffins in the shape of a heart.

If you have some extra time, you can also make a delicious spread based on your kids’ taste.

Get out

Playing in the snow is a great way of having fun with your kids. In fact, your kids would love to get out and spend time playing with snow. You can enjoy the natural landscape by making a small snowman or snow fort. Of course, your kids can help you with this. If it’s summer, you can play hopscotch, go for a hike or engage in other indoor activities.

Here the idea is to change your routine for a day and spend some time with your family somewhere outside.

Make a collaborative craft

If you make a masterpiece that can be displayed in your house, it will work as a great reminder. What you need to do is print out family photos and put them in an album.

If you have a creative mind, you can do a family project, such as a windowsill garden or a scrapbook. If you are short of ideas, you can sit with your family and come up with some ideas that you can work on. It’s also a good idea to get in touch with your friends a few days ahead of the family day to get some great ideas.

Read a book with your kids

You can choose your favorite book and read it sitting on your couch. It’s better to enjoy a book with pictures. Actually, reading a book with pictures will be an interactive experience. This way you can also teach your kids as to how exciting it can be to read a book.

If your children are learning to read, you can opt for a book that is easy to read. In other words, the book should have easy vocabulary and short stories.

Write letters

You can sit with your children and draw or write postcards to other family members, such as Grandpa, Grandma, uncles and aunts. This is a great way of expressing your love for those family members. You can also use stamps and stickers on the postcards.

Start a fresh tradition

Family Day is a new day on the list of holidays. Therefore, you can get creative and make a new tradition. You can watch a family photo album or videos over dinner to relieve family memories, for instance.

So, these are some great ideas that can help you celebrate the Family Day

We love our dogs, from the tips of their wet noses to their joyfully swaying tails. Nonetheless, with regards to the issues related to pet proprietorship, the issue of shedding hair frequently best the rundown.

For What Reason Do Animals Shed Their Hair?

For whatever length of time that humankind has been living nearby mutts, we’ve spent innumerable hours expelling shed hide from our garments, nourishment, homes, and belonging. Pooch proprietors do what’s coming to us of shedding, as well-simply look at the deplete after you’ve had a shower. In any case, for what reason do creatures shed in any case?

“Creatures shed their hair as a characteristic procedure to evacuate harmed and old hair and renew with new hair,” says Dr. Adam Denish of Rhawnhurst Animal Hospital in Pennsylvania. “Hair has a large number of purposes, including sensation, assurance of the skin, and control of body temperature, among others.”

How To Control Dog Shedding With Diet

Regardless of whether your puppy leaves a light covering of hiding afterward or clusters the extent of little well-evolved creatures, here are a few things you can do to stem that furry tide.

As indicated by Dr. Coates, once medical issues have been precluded, an all-around adjusted and sound eating routine can go far to continuing shedding at a worthy level.

“A fair eating regimen won’t supply every one of the supplements a pet needs to develop and keep up a sound coat. Sufficient measures of great protein and fat, especially basic unsaturated fats, are expected to lessen shedding,” says Dr. Coates.

Furthermore, with regards to your decision in sustenance, it’s best not to hold back, says Dr. Denish.

“The nature of nourishment that your pet eats incredibly impacts the level of shedding and the nature of the coat,” says Dr. Denish. Obviously, there is a hereditary and breed segment to a creature’s shedding as well.”

How To Control Shedding With Grooming

Counsel from vets is all fine and great; however, in the event that you truly need to get the inside scoop on shedding, you have to converse with somebody who’s invested energy in the trenches where the hide is continually flying: a puppy groomer.

Mari Rozanski, of Plush Pups Boutique and Grooming in Huntingdon Valley, Pennsylvania, has been preparing pooches for over 25 years. Legitimate prepping, similar to such a large number of different parts of puppy possession, starts at home. To put it plainly, you must brush them. However, how frequently?

“In a perfect world, I would state brush your puppy consistently. It’s useful for their jacket and skin, and it can fill in as quality time with your canine,” says Rozanski. “More realistically, brushing your canine at least once or twice a week should help continue shedding to a base.”

Keeping Your Home Clean Of Pet Hair

With regards to keeping your home clean, there are numerous things you can do to either get push off canine hair or shield it from turning into an issue in any case. As per Rozanski, it’s dependably a smart thought to keep furniture and other wanted territories secured with a toss or sheet, but vacuuming is your best weapon in the battle against canine hair. While an ordinary vacuum can be utilized, there are exceptional gadgets and connections that are intended to manage pet hide, which can make the activity less demanding.

With regards to brisk pickups of canine hair from garments and furniture, Rozanski is inclined toward hand rollers from organizations, for example, 3M. On the off chance that you have wood flooring in your home, a Swiffer or comparative kind of sweeper may do similarly and additionally a vacuum; however, you will still require one to get in the alcoves and corners of your furniture. Once more, none of these activities will totally dispense with shed hair from your home, yet they will enable you to battle it.

Utilizing Air Filters To Control Pet Hair In The Home

Pet hair and dander noticeable all around can compound hypersensitivities, asthma, and different conditions, and regularly the ordinary separating that accompanies warming and ventilating frameworks won’t be sufficiently strong to make a simple breathing condition. There are numerous independent air channels you can buy, yet Rozanski says she has had specific accomplishment with Aprilaire items.

Clearly, visit channel changes are an absolute necessity, and for vigorously shedding canines, you may even need to change channels more regularly than the organization suggests.

It is not that I do not like to travel; I just don’t like to leave home. I am quite comfortable at home where I have everything I need within easy reach.

Sometimes I have to travel to a conference or something, which is rather inconvenient for me. However, as my friend used to say, “That’s life.”

According to my calculations, I would have to travel 13 hours to get to my destination. I pondered for a long time whether it was worth it or not. Then the Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage said, “Go ahead. You need a break.”

What she meant by “a break,” was far from my comprehension at the time. I guess she needed a break from me, which is my personal opinion.

However, taking her advice I packed my bags and prepared for my trip on the road.

Early the next morning I loaded my vehicle and set out on my trip. I must say that driving by yourself and being alone does have its advantages. After the first hour or so, I lost track of what those advantages really were. Talking to myself is the most boring conversation I could ever have.

I got to my conference on schedule and moved into my hotel room. I had a few hours before the conference started so I was able to stretch out on the bed and relax.

Then I got up and went to the conference. For the next few days, I spent going to the conference and coming back to my hotel room. I will confess, if you promise not to tell anyone, I did have a good time and some wonderful fellowship.

The time came for me to pack up, get on the road again and go home. After packing my vehicle, I stood for a moment and sighed very deeply. Being as weary as I was, I was not looking forward to the long travel home.

In one of the towns I passed through, they had several signs. Normally I do not pay much attention to signs, but in this case, I was a little curious. After all, I was bored.

In the middle of this little town was a big sign that said “Watch the Children.” I pulled over, parked my vehicle, rolled down the window and for the next 30 minutes I looked for the children. No children were around so how could I actually watch the children if there was no children? After all, there was a sign instructing me to watch the children.

Finally, after finding no children to watch, I decided to get back in the saddle again and continue home. A few blocks later, I saw another sign, “Thrift Store in Rear.” I did not even look! Nobody is going to trick me with that! I do fall for many things, but I do have my limit.

Hour past after hour and I was getting weary, I stopped at a few places to get something to eat. Nothing really appealed to my sagging appetite. Eating on the road can be a boring kind of activity. Of course, I went to the cheapest restaurants I could find, which may explain that.

After a while, one sandwich tastes like another sandwich and my tongue falls asleep.

Driving through one town, I realized I was in Lancaster County Pennsylvania. Therefore, with that in mind, I decided to stop at a good old time country restaurant. No better place for good food.

I sat down, looked at the menu and for once in my trip, I saw some things that attracted my appetite. Ordering a very nice lunch encouraged me a little bit, although I was still a little down and had a long way to go. I was weary in body and soul.

Finishing my meal the waitress came by and ask, “Sir, would you like some dessert?” Then she handed me the dessert menu. At the time, I was not hungry.

I took the menu opened it up, and then, there it was. All the hardships and boredom of my trip had come to a complete end. I could not believe what I was seeing on that dessert menu.

I could not remember how long it was since I had one of those desserts. But there it was! A slice of old-fashioned Amish shoofly pie. That got my heart thumping! There is no dessert quite like Amish shoofly pie.

Whoever invented the shoofly pie should get the Nobel Peace Prize. I know of no peace quite like a piece of shoofly pie.

“Have you decided on your dessert?”

I looked at the waitress and smiled like I had not smiled all week.

“I will have,” I said as dignified as I could, “a piece of your shoofly pie.”

“Good choice, Sir.”

And boy, was it a good choice! I savored every bite of that shoofly pie. It made the rest of the trip a delicious delight.

Thinking of that pie was the great delight for the rest of my travel. I understood David when he wrote, “Delight thyself also in the Lord: and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart” (Psalm 37:4).

Oftentimes I get so busy that all I can think about is the task before me. I am learning that in the midst of the busiest of tasks I can experience a wonderful delight in the Lord.

As a child, I remember my mother watching soap operas in the afternoon. I never had much interest in them; I would rather watch The Lone Ranger and his companion Tonto.

One afternoon I was sitting in the living room while she was watching one of her soap operas. I was trying to figure out what in the world was happening. None of it made sense and it seemed to be more drama than anything else. Why they call it, “soap opera” I will never know because they could use more soap in their conversations.

Although I never was much interested in soap operas, as I have gotten older (and I intend to get a lot older) I begin to see similarities. I am not an expert on soap operas by a long shot. However, it seems to me that our world has become a gigantic soap opera.

Everybody seems to be saying a line written for them by somebody else and none of it really making sense. There was a time when you could understand what a person was saying and there was some rationale behind the conversation.

Today is not that day.

I have noticed TV has many “reality shows.” For my dime, I do not see much reality in any of these reality shows. I know I do not watch them so maybe I am missing something. However, what I do see is not reality, as I know it.

That brings me to a question. What in the world happened to reality in our culture today? I do not see it anywhere.

I understand advertisements are not based upon reality. Their job is to sell their product to whoever they can sell their product to. I understand all that.

I understand that politics today is not based on any kind of reality known to man or woman. If we could get all politicians together in one room we maybe could find one tiny little gray cell that was working. However, it would not be overworked.

To have politicians that have no sense of reality at all is a very cumbersome predicament. They have no idea what the average person is up against and they have no way of helping them.

With a great deal of soap opera-ism, the politicians speak and speak and speak.

Just the other day I was listening to a politician talking and I could not understand what in the world he was talking about. The only thing they know what to talk about is whatever the audience at the time accepts to help them get reelected.

Where is the reality in politics? It is nothing but an overblown soap opera that nobody is really watching.

Not long ago when I was sick and could not get out of the house I watched some programs that were called “talk shows.” After listening for a little while, I concluded that a hummingbird made more sense than these people did on talk shows.

It has become a soap opera world for sure. Nothing really makes sense, at least to the common person. Nothing has any sense of reality in it. I guess when you are in TV you are not allowed to be “real” about anything. The only thing that is real in our social media today is the money that people are making acting as if they know what they are doing.

Of course, I got a little piece of advice from the Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage. I was complaining about all of this non-reality around us and how many idiots were out there in the world. I just went on and on and on until finally she heard enough.

“Well,” she said rather strictly, “do you want to know what I think about all of this?”

Of course she did not give me an opportunity to say yes or no, she was ready to give me her thoughts on this anyway.

“Complain about all of the idiots out there all you want. But there’s a positive side to all of this.”

To tell you the truth, I could not see any positive side so I inquired as to what she was talking about.

“Very simply,” she replied, “if it were not for all of the idiots and crazy people out there I would not know how sane you really are.”

I had to have her repeat that a couple of times because that was well over my pay grade. It finally sunk in.

I complimented her on that and told her she really had a good point. If it weren’t for all of those crazy idiots out there in the world, how would we know how sane and wonderful we really are?

Paul said it best when he wrote, “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Romans 12:2).

The unreality of the world around me should not rob me of the reality of my relationship with God through Christ.

Since 1997, Rev. James L. Snyder has written a weekly religion/humor column, “Out To Pastor,” syndicated to over 300 newspapers and many websites. The Rev. Snyder is an award winning author whose writings have appeared in more than eighty periodicals including GUIDEPOSTS. In Pursuit of God: The Life of A. W. Tozer, Snyder’s first book, won the Reader’s Choice Award in 1992 by Christianity Today. Snyder has authored and edited 30 books altogether.

James L. Snyder was given an honorary doctorate degree (Doctor of Letters) by Trinity College in Florida. His weekly humor column, “Out To Pastor,” is syndicated to more than 325 weekly newspapers.