History Main / InfantSiblingJealousy

* The ''Literature/AngelinaBallerina'' book ''Angelina's Baby Sister'' shows Angelina going through this when her little sister Polly is born. She's upset that everyone is paying more attention to the baby than her and [[TheUnfavorite doesn't love her anymore]]. She throws a tantrum and breaks a prize she won; her mother then comes and assures her that she is just as loved and Polly just needs more attention because she's a baby.

* Darkly and tragically played with in ''Manga/FruitsBasket'' with Machi Kuragi. Machi was pushed to the limit of her mother's extreme expectations so Machi would be chosen as an inheritor over her illegitimate half-brother. However, when Mrs. Kuragi later had a baby boy and Machi was tossed aside while her mother made relentless comments about how "dull" Machi was. In spite of the fact Machi did nothing but try and make her mom happy. Yet Machi was never jealous or resentful of her brother, it didn't stop her parents from believing she was willing to ''kill'' her brother and threw her out of their home. All Machi tried to do was adjust her brother's blanket because she was worried about him being cold, but her mom thought Machi was trying to strangle him.

* ''Website/GoAnimate'': A common type of video is "X calls the Baby Stupid", wherein when a new baby is born or brought home, the older sibling (sometimes an original character, sometimes [[PeripheryHatedom a character from a show aimed at kids the user really doesn't like]]) [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin will call the baby stupid]]. This will cause the baby to cry, and the parents will [[GroundedForever ground the older sibling for a ridiculously long time]], causing them to run away crying. They will then calm the baby down and tell them their older sibling can't bother them anymore.

* Melody from ''Literature/DolphinSong'' Melody has two half-siblings, Lisa and Justin, both below age three. Melody adjusted easily enough when Lisa was born, but ever since Justin came along, Melody has felt like her father John and her stepmother Felicity are more interested in the kids than they are in her. She also dislikes the mess and chaos of living with two small children.

* ''Series/Charmed1998'': Toddler [[GooGooGodlike Wyatt]] winds up getting so jealous of baby Chris that he keeps using magic to steal his stuff, and eventually [[FlashyTeleportation orbs]] him somewhere outside the house, where he's thankfully found by Victor. Grams casts a spell that is supposed to end their sibling rivalry, but it backfires by [[EquivalentExchange making the sisters act like immature children instead]].

%%* The ''WesternAnimation/AngelinaBallerina'' book ''Angelina's Baby Sister'' shows Angelina going through this when her little sister Polly is born.

* In ''[[Literature/RamonaQuimby Ramona Forever]]'', when Mrs. Quimby becomes pregnant, Ramona struggles with the thought of losing her status as [[TheBabyOfTheBunch the youngest]] and becoming [[MiddleChildSyndrome the middle child.]] When her new sister is born, she feels even more left out when she's not allowed to visit her in the hospital. A friendly doctor diagnoses her with "siblingitis" and "prescribes" some extra attention as the cure, which her father duly gives her. The following book ''Ramona' World'', reveals that she still feels jealous now and then when baby Roberta gets more attention than she does, but for the most part she can accept it and is a caring [[BigBrotherInstinct protective]] big sister.

Compare to DislikesTheNewGuy.

* The ''WesternAnimation/AngelinaBallerina'' book ''Angelina's Baby Sister'' shows Angelina going through this when her little sister Polly is born.

* ''[[http://www.simonscat.com/ Simon's Cat]]'': In Double Trouble, Simon's Cat discovers a kitten as his little brother. It's also where the actual conflict begins for the rest of the series.

* ''Series/OnceUponATime'' uses this in an interesting way in season 4's "The Snow Queen.” Emma struggles with abandonment issues after a childhood in the foster care system, and although she finds her family and resolves some of them, her SupernaturallyYoungParents having another child is unexpectedly difficult. Emma is an adult, so the feelings aren’t directed at the baby, but more at the situation and watching her parents parent her brother. However, since Emma is experiencing some PowerIncontinence, these feelings come out subconsciously through her powers, and the reactions from her parents only make her feel more rejected—such as when Emma hears Snow being called a “first time mother” and finds she’s making the baby’s bottle boil, prompting Snow to be hesitant to hand over Neal. The Snow Queen, season 4A’s BigBad and one of Emma’s former foster placements, preys on this insecurity to convince Emma to join her. This makes Emma’s PowerIncontinence worse, and after accidentally injuring her father, she runs off to isolate herself.

* In ''VideoGame/TheSims4'', while it ''is'' possible for them to be happy about it, there are also two potential ''negative'' moodlets that children and teens can get from meeting a new sibling. There's a sad "New Sibling..." moodlet and an angry "Unwanted Sibling" moodlet.

* In ''Julius, the Baby of the World'', Lily was originally thrilled to be a big sister when her Mom was pregnant with her baby brother, Julius. Following Julius' birth, she took on a more hostile personality towards him. She did not like having to share her bedroom with him and hoped her parents would send him away. She even tried scaring him, making him disappear, and pretending he didn't exist, all of which sent her to the uncooperative chair. When Lily's parents throw a party in Julius' honor, Lily's cousin Garland acts the same way towards Julius that Lily did, which causes Lily to change her attitude towards Julius for good and [[HypocriticalHeartwarming defend him.]]

* It's mentioned off-hand in ''Literature/ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents'' that Klaus disliked Sunny at first. He grew to like her within 6 weeks of her birth.

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''. Buffy has this to Dawn, who ironically resents her in turn.

* Charlie in ''Series/GoodLuckCharlie'' constantly asked that her baby brother Toby be left somewhere, thrown away, or ignored him as much as she could get away with. Gabe felt the same way about her, and each older sibling of the Duncan household felt the same way about their immediate younger sibling.
* In the ''Series/LittleHouseOnThePrairie'' two-part episode ''The Lord is My Shepherd'', Laura is jealous of her baby brother Charles Jr. and refuses to pray for him when he falls ill. But when the baby dies, she's [[IWishedYouWereDead guilt-ridden]] and [[TheRunaway runs away]] to ask God to send him back and [[TakeMeInstead take her instead.]]

* Early in ''Literature/TheBabySittersClub'', Jamie Newton is far from thrilled about his mom having a new baby. He gets better about it, and in later books the sitters note how much he seems to love being around his baby sister.
** In the ''Little Sister'' spin-off series, Karen isn't too thrilled with her father's new adopted daughter, Emily Michelle, seemingly feeling somewhat like Emily is replacing her as her father's little girl (particularly since she now only lives with him a few days a month due to the divorce arrangement between her parents, while Emily lives with him all the time). She gets better about it, and is shown to be a pretty good big sister to Emily in later books.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheRugratsMovie'', Tommy doesn't get along with his newborn brother Dil at first. He hates how much noise Dil makes and feels his parents are neglecting him to focus on his brother. Tommy and his friends trying to send Dil back to the hospital is how they end up lost in a forest. By the end of the film, Tommy realizes how much he loves Dil and his BigBrotherInstinct often appears in later episodes of [[WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}} the TV series.]] This is possibly the only example of this trope where the older sibling is a baby too, only a year older than the newborn.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'': In "[[Recap/RugratsS3E21AngelicasWorstNightmareTheMegaDiaperBabies Angelica's Worst Nightmare]]", Angelica freaks out at the news that her mother is pregnant, to the point where she has nightmares about having a baby brother who steals all her stuff, turns into a giant, and ''eats'' her. Most of it stems from the fact that Angelica is used to being treated like a princess, and that she doesn't like having to share anything, especially her parents' love. Subverted, however, when it turns out that her mother had false pregnancy symptoms.

* In ''[[Literature/RamonaQuimby Ramona Forever]]'', when Mrs. Quimby becomes pregnant, Ramona struggles with the thought of losing her status as [[TheBabyOfTheBunch the youngest]] and becoming [[MiddleChildSyndrome the middle child.]] When her new sister is born, she feels even more left out when she's not allowed to visit her in the hospital. A friendly doctor diagnoses her with "siblingitis" and "prescribes" some extra attention as the cure, which her father duly gives her.

* Played with in ''LightNovel/MyNextLifeAsAVillainessAllRoutesLeadToDoom'', given that the younger sibling is adopted and there's only a few months between them. [[SpoiledBrat The original Katarina]] from the game was incredibly jealous of Keith stealing away their father's attention and would verbally abuse him well into their teenage years (something that leads to her death in at least one of the routes). The new much kinder Katarina (having the PastLifeMemories of a Japanese schoolgirl who played the game and always wanted a younger sibling) defies this and tries to be his CoolBigSis almost immediately after meeting him.

* ''Creator/DingoPictures'': In an infamous scene from ''Animation/DinosaurAdventure'' (that was the origin of the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6EoRBvdVPQ "Yee"]] meme), Tio finds out that he has a new brother and is worried that his parents don't want him anymore. His friend Peek teases him about it.

* In ''Literature/TheBerenstainBears and Baby Makes Five'', Honey Bear is born, and Mama, Papa, and Brother spend all of their time with her, making Sister feel largely ignored. Sister also becomes bad-tempered, to the point where when she had a school assignment to draw a picture of her family, she deliberately left Honey out of the picture. The Bear family then shows Sister home movies of when she was a baby, which makes her realize that she used to be just like Honey. This causes Sister to change her attitude towards Honey, to the point of drawing a new family picture that includes her.

In stories aimed at children in particular, it is a common plot for the child characters to dislike it when their parents have a new child. Reasons for this differ from being jealous of all the attention the new baby is getting, being worried about falling into MiddleChildSyndrome, or disliking how noisy and messy babies are.

Rarely however does this train of thought last past early childhood, though. The dynamic almost never becomes of the CainAndAbel sort once they're older, though a SiblingRivalry is common. The character might end up with shades of a BigBrotherBully but overall they are shown to love their sibling. There is frequently an {{aesop}} where the kid learns to love their sibling, or simply they grow out of it.