Today, Dear Ole Mum dropped off a bagful of possibly-me-shaped clothing, some with the store tags still on, to megpie71 while I was at work
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Mmm, this probably says a fair bit about me, too. The few formative episodes of my childhood I can recall were all about either refusing or being forced into complying with actions which I felt compromised my self-image as a complete, valid individual. These were mainly -
1) At ten years of age, refusing to attend church any more (I won that one).
2) Refusing to comply when my parents told me they had volunteered my (unpaid) services to mow someone else's lawn. If you want my help, you ask, you don't dictate. I will never, ever be guilted into action (or inaction) because of someone else's presumption. "But I said you would!" is deserving of no more reponse other than "Did you really."
3) After having slowly amassed a personal collection of rather fragile toys with many delicate hinges, tiny parts and fascinating engineering, being told to "hand one of them over" to an ultra-destructive younger brother purely because he was rampaging around the house. Five minutes later, one favorite piece of precision design was two pieces of twisted, crushed plastic, and the rampage continued unabated. Oh yeah, that was so worth it.
I think this one makes me the angriest. Who the hell would ever do that to anyone, let alone a kid? What a complete betrayal of trust! Way to abandon logic, respect for other people's property, and parental responsibility there.
"Hey, there's this pyromaniac in the street giving us grief. Go give him your art sketches and favorite books."
"Wow, someone's smashing up stuff with a baseball bat three suburbs over. I know - go and get your fine china and take it over, it might distract her."
"Hey hon? Your big sister's snapped and is feeding everything into the paper shredder. We should intervene, but first why don't you give her your favorite teddy bear, the one she always hated? I'm sure nothing bad could come of that. No, I'm not asking you, I'm telling you."
Quote: "Who the hell would ever do that to anyone, let alone a kid? What a complete betrayal of trust! Way to abandon logic, respect for other people's property, and parental responsibility there."
Good thing you turned out intelligent enough to recognize that she was being unreasonable, instead of doing what most kids do and automatically picking things up from the examples their parents set. What your ultra-destructive younger brother took from it I don't know. Hopefully he wasn't spoilt or anything, which is the impression I would have drawn from what you've said if I'd been in your position.
Li'l bro wasn't spoilt, exactly, but he had a lot of physical energy and not that much in the way of emotional dampers. He was always the one who got my hand-me-down clothes and never left anything wearable (or sometimes even recognisable) for our youngest brother.
He also tended not to think before 'borrowing' things and then wrecking them in short order - minutes to hours, usually. One time, despite having been told that he most definitely could not borrow my tennis gear, he did so and then randomly decided that a steel pole at the local tennis club needed to be beaten into submission. And hey, he was holding a racquet...
He may possibly have started to get the hint after I subsequently made him gut his own savings to replace the wrecked gear. Especially as I then hung it up, prominently displayed, in my room, and never once actually took it down to play tennis with.
Even coming up to 30, he's still pretty boisterous, although he eventually turned his unending energy towards athletic and academic achievement, and is shortly due to complete his doctorate.
But yeah, wild child. If it can be climbed, swum, run along, hit with a bat, eaten, drunk, smoked, driven, attended, befriended, dyed, styled, read or researched, he'll have done it six times before you finish saying "Maybe we should think about this first." I'm honestly surprised that he's so far remained tattooless, addiction-free, and has yet to be bailed out of any lockups (to the family's knowledge).
Argh, now I'm torn as to whether I should get him interested in tattoos... so much potential sibling-revenge material when one party doesn't have much in the way of self-restraint :)
I mean, he'd be thrilled with the idea, I'd get endless amusement that his first six would probably come from Shaky Freddy, and either way it would absolutely mortify our mum - wins all round!
1) At ten years of age, refusing to attend church any more (I won that one).
2) Refusing to comply when my parents told me they had volunteered my (unpaid) services to mow someone else's lawn. If you want my help, you ask, you don't dictate. I will never, ever be guilted into action (or inaction) because of someone else's presumption. "But I said you would!" is deserving of no more reponse other than "Did you really."
3) After having slowly amassed a personal collection of rather fragile toys with many delicate hinges, tiny parts and fascinating engineering, being told to "hand one of them over" to an ultra-destructive younger brother purely because he was rampaging around the house. Five minutes later, one favorite piece of precision design was two pieces of twisted, crushed plastic, and the rampage continued unabated. Oh yeah, that was so worth it.
I think this one makes me the angriest. Who the hell would ever do that to anyone, let alone a kid? What a complete betrayal of trust! Way to abandon logic, respect for other people's property, and parental responsibility there.
"Hey, there's this pyromaniac in the street giving us grief. Go give him your art sketches and favorite books."
"Wow, someone's smashing up stuff with a baseball bat three suburbs over. I know - go and get your fine china and take it over, it might distract her."
"Hey hon? Your big sister's snapped and is feeding everything into the paper shredder. We should intervene, but first why don't you give her your favorite teddy bear, the one she always hated? I'm sure nothing bad could come of that. No, I'm not asking you, I'm telling you."
Argh. That memory still makes me foam.
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Good thing you turned out intelligent enough to recognize that she was being unreasonable, instead of doing what most kids do and automatically picking things up from the examples their parents set. What your ultra-destructive younger brother took from it I don't know. Hopefully he wasn't spoilt or anything, which is the impression I would have drawn from what you've said if I'd been in your position.
Reply
He also tended not to think before 'borrowing' things and then wrecking them in short order - minutes to hours, usually. One time, despite having been told that he most definitely could not borrow my tennis gear, he did so and then randomly decided that a steel pole at the local tennis club needed to be beaten into submission. And hey, he was holding a racquet...
He may possibly have started to get the hint after I subsequently made him gut his own savings to replace the wrecked gear. Especially as I then hung it up, prominently displayed, in my room, and never once actually took it down to play tennis with.
Even coming up to 30, he's still pretty boisterous, although he eventually turned his unending energy towards athletic and academic achievement, and is shortly due to complete his doctorate.
But yeah, wild child. If it can be climbed, swum, run along, hit with a bat, eaten, drunk, smoked, driven, attended, befriended, dyed, styled, read or researched, he'll have done it six times before you finish saying "Maybe we should think about this first." I'm honestly surprised that he's so far remained tattooless, addiction-free, and has yet to be bailed out of any lockups (to the family's knowledge).
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I mean, he'd be thrilled with the idea, I'd get endless amusement that his first six would probably come from Shaky Freddy, and either way it would absolutely mortify our mum - wins all round!
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