Sup, Bro?
I wonder how it would be if me and my brother and sisters were born out of order.
I'm the oldest in my family, with my two sisters coming after, and my brother is the baby. We're all two years apart, so our age range varies by six years. I'm 22, and my brother is 16. I consider that to be pretty close in age, which I really like, since I feel like we're all pretty close.
I'm not going to talk about how emotionally close I am with my brother and sisters though. The closeness in age isn't too big, but there really is a world of difference between how my parents treat me and my brother.
There's a bunch of things that I've noticed that are different. First of all, there's birthdays. When I was younger, I had birthday parties, but by the age of maybe...13 those kind of stopped. I don't remember my family really doing anything for my birthday in YEARS. Here are some examples.
Chores are a huge difference as well. He gets away without doing anything, especially when it comes to his room. By the way, his room is my room too. When it's messy, of course it's my mess...although it really isn't.
Another chore we've both had was squishing cans so we can go recycle them and what not. Whenever I did it, any money made was seized and turned into state property, with the state distributing it equally. The money made from the cans wasn't mine. It was also my brother and sister's. This last weekend, my brother went with my dad to sell the recycled cans, but he got to keep all the money.
School is a major difference as well. I always did well in school. In fact, it may be the only thing I'm good at. One day, progress reports were mailed home, and when I got home I was in trouble. I had pulled a C+ in my physics class and was told if I continued the way I was going, I was going to end up without a job and on the streets. Because of a C+. On a progress report. Which do not count. It was about an hour long lecture too. I remember because I missed two episodes of The Simpsons.
Fast forward to my brother's junior year, where he completely bombed his Spanish class, getting an F in it. Wanna know what happened as a consequence? Nothing. They just threatened to take away my brother's phone, but didn't really do it.
I probably have more to say about this, but for now just seeing the differences in reactions and actions by parents in similar situations is interesting.
Maybe it's because they've gone through raising three other kids. Maybe it's because my brother is the baby.
Or maybe my parents just hate me.
(I don't think they really hate me.)
I'm the oldest in my family, with my two sisters coming after, and my brother is the baby. We're all two years apart, so our age range varies by six years. I'm 22, and my brother is 16. I consider that to be pretty close in age, which I really like, since I feel like we're all pretty close.
I'm not going to talk about how emotionally close I am with my brother and sisters though. The closeness in age isn't too big, but there really is a world of difference between how my parents treat me and my brother.
There's a bunch of things that I've noticed that are different. First of all, there's birthdays. When I was younger, I had birthday parties, but by the age of maybe...13 those kind of stopped. I don't remember my family really doing anything for my birthday in YEARS. Here are some examples.
- One winter break (my birthday is in December), we were driving down to Mexico. We left on the 20th, so when it became the 21st, we were still on the road, and still in the U.S. We had to stop at a gas station, which was in a Safeway parking lot. In the Safeway, there was a Starbucks. If you know me, you know I love Starbucks. All I wanted for my birthday was a Frappuccino. Did I get it? No.
- Like me, my sister has a December birthday. The year she was turning 15, we didn't have a typical quincenera, but we had a party at our house. When was it? Why, it was the day of my birthday. I didn't mind, but I asked if I could have my name on the cake. I thought it was a reasonable request, since the party was the day of my birthday. Request denied.
- 21 is supposed to be a milestone and huge party birthday, isn't it? On my 21st, I sat at home all day, until I had to go to the mall to return a sweater for my mom. Exciting stuff!
Chores are a huge difference as well. He gets away without doing anything, especially when it comes to his room. By the way, his room is my room too. When it's messy, of course it's my mess...although it really isn't.
Another chore we've both had was squishing cans so we can go recycle them and what not. Whenever I did it, any money made was seized and turned into state property, with the state distributing it equally. The money made from the cans wasn't mine. It was also my brother and sister's. This last weekend, my brother went with my dad to sell the recycled cans, but he got to keep all the money.
School is a major difference as well. I always did well in school. In fact, it may be the only thing I'm good at. One day, progress reports were mailed home, and when I got home I was in trouble. I had pulled a C+ in my physics class and was told if I continued the way I was going, I was going to end up without a job and on the streets. Because of a C+. On a progress report. Which do not count. It was about an hour long lecture too. I remember because I missed two episodes of The Simpsons.
Fast forward to my brother's junior year, where he completely bombed his Spanish class, getting an F in it. Wanna know what happened as a consequence? Nothing. They just threatened to take away my brother's phone, but didn't really do it.
I probably have more to say about this, but for now just seeing the differences in reactions and actions by parents in similar situations is interesting.
Maybe it's because they've gone through raising three other kids. Maybe it's because my brother is the baby.
Or maybe my parents just hate me.
(I don't think they really hate me.)