Младшая сестра выскочила замуж раньше меня - статья Times с русскоязычными "подсказками"

My little sister beat me to the altar – младшая сестра выскочила замуж раньше меня

How does it feel when your younger sister marries and has kids before you? Not particularly (особенно) great

The thing about a big family is that there's a natural running order (естественный порядок очередности). As the eldest of four children, I'd pretty much always gone first. When my brother got married at 24, it was a shock. But, on a December day in London, my sister Christabel - who, at 24, was a whole seven years younger than me - had the audacity (наглость) to jump the sibling queue (пройти, минуя очередь из братьев и сестер; sibling – брат или сестра) and elbow ahead of me up the aisle (опередила меня в замужестве (дословно: протолкнулась вперед меня по проходу между рядами в церкви (по которому идут к венчанию)) as well. To add insult to injury (сыпя соль на рану; дословно «добавив оскорбление к телесному повреждению)), Christabel's carefully chosen (тщательно выбранное) wedding dress was hiding a four-month bump (четырехмесячный живот). She'd pipped me to the post on both counts (на финишной черте она «сделала» меня дважды).

Of course, the wedding was divine (божественной/превосходной). But nobody likes to be queue-jumped (никто не любит, когда его обошли в очереди) - all I could think was, thank God she chose only young bridesmaids (подружек невесты), so I didn't have to suffer the ignominy of being squeezed into a frilly dress (мне не пришлось пережить бесчестье, втиснувшись в отделанное оборками платье).

I still had to endure the older generation looking at me with blatant pity (до сих пор приходится терпеть взгляды откровенной жалости со стороны старшего поколения). To them, I wasn't just on the shelf (незамужняя; дословно: на полке), I was gathering dust (собираю пыль). As far as they were concerned (здесь: по их мнению), I'd not only missed the boat (упустила возможность), I was stranded on my own desert island of spinsterdom (я оказалась на мели собственного безлюдного острова стародевичества).

Surely it shouldn't matter who goes first, though? Age hadn't seemed important when I'd had a fling (у меня случался короткий роман) with someone 10 years younger than me, nor when I was dancing in Ibiza with my youngest sister, Florence, and her 21-year-old friends, nor when I'd gone gambling in the south of France with my 80-year-old godmother. But the norm in my family is to reproduce (размножаться), while career takes second place. Mum was pregnant with me (беременна мной) at 17, and my younger brother, Henry, now 31, had the first of his four children when he was 22. I, on the other hand, spent my twenties working, committed to the possibility of having it all (веря в возможность добиться всего). There was no time for babies as I swung from job to job (меняла места работы), negotiating my way up the tree (ведя переговоры по моему восхождению по карьерной лестнице) until I found myself in a comfortable position and in control of my time. I'd had one long, grown-up relationship that took me from university to the age of 25 and made me feel like a worn-in, comfy old sofa (износившийся удобный старый диван). I got over it by going the other way (я пережила это, пойдя по противоположному пути), actively looking for inappropriate (неуместных/неподходящих) men, which resulted in a string of mostly disastrous relationships это привело к череде самых злополучных отношений).

I may have worn a broad grin (хотя я и «надела» широкую улыбку) on my sister's wedding day, but not very far beneath the surface (не очень глубоко от поверхности) was a whole bunch of resentment gnawing away (меня терзала сильная обида). It hurt that I was being superseded (я вытеснена/смещена) by my little sister. So, as my newly married sister and her husband boarded a plane (садились на самолет) for the Seychelles, I was “dealing with it” (справлялась с ситуацией) by behaving like a teenager (ведя себя как подросток), drowning my single sorrows (заливая горести одиночества алкоголем) and asking my sister's friends to marry me.
Do younger siblings generally embrace motherhood earlier (вступают на путь материнства раньше), allowing the eldest to forge ahead on the ambition front (позволяя старшим продвигаться на фронте амбиций)?

Perhaps there's a reason why the eldest daughter feels the need to lead the way (быть лидером). As the psychologist John Stewart explains: “Elder daughters often feel dethroned (смещенными/развенчанными) after the birth of a second child. The desire to compensate and compete in the originally perceived masculine role of a career (в изначально воспринимаемой как мужская роли карьериста) is strong.”

Since she was tiny (крошечной), Christabel has worn her maternal instinct like a second skin (дословно: носила материнский инстинкт как вторую кожу): reaching out for (протягивая руки к ) babies or soothing (утешая) a crying child with her whispers.
Three years on, and Christabel has a second baby daughter, Lola Rose, a tiny sister to Grace. I look at both children as their characters develop and wonder if their fate is already written, because of who came first. Will Grace be a career superwoman, while Lola settles down early into family life?

I ask my mother how she views the way we've developed. “Sometimes, in a big family, the younger children take the attention away from (отвлекают внимание от) the older ones,” she says. “So, the eldest looks at other ways of gaining attention (другие способы заполучить внимание) from their parents, which, in your case, was striving for success (борьба за успех/стремление к успеху).” But now, years after my siblings, I'm engaged (я помолвлена), so it's time for me to have a family. And the honest truth is - I'm bricking it (я боюсь)*.
* значение выражения - http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=bricking+it