Siblings

There has always been this thing; this myth, if you will, that when siblings grow up, they get along better. The reason they say that, is because at some point, they move out of the house that they grew up in. However, in my case, that didn’t happen. I moved out to go to college, and sometimes come home for the occasional weekend or holiday. However, my brother never left, so whenever I come home, there he is, and usually I am not met with a smile. 

So why can’t we get along? The same reason siblings that share a bathroom don’t, because there is sharing involved. For the second time, after growing up, the attention of the parents must be shared, instead the focused attentiveness that one would get as if they were the only child in the house. It’s the attention that makes the siblings get along when they are older. When we were fighting over a toy, or fighting with words, we were really fighting over is the parents’ attention, we gauge who they love the most by who they are easiest on when they are punishing us both. 

My whole thing was that I wanted to be heard, and with my brother around, that doesn’t happen. With his constant interruptions, his insistence that he is right even though I have facts to back up my argument, trying to get out what I need to say is next to impossible without him yelling me, or my mother shaming me. So why try to communicate? Why talk at all? Because every once and while, they take what I want into account; they listen to me. At that moment, it’s all worth it.