My parents were fighting with my brother at my age. I was away at college and my brother was alone with them, doing drugs, drinking, and other bad things. They were working and paying a small portion of my college tuition. But mostly they were counting down until they could get my brother graduated from high school. He was a huge handful from what I was told. My father was enabling his bad behavior by encouraging him to seek out “relationships” with multiple girls at a time. Or encouraging very intense and serious relationships, which led to my brother having a pregnant girlfriend at age 16. She was 15. But I digress, neither of my parents have the ability to see how horrible their parenting was for either of us. I was the one they clamped down on and he was the one they let run free.
I never had any intention of being devious like he did. He thoroughly enjoyed starting trouble and didn’t care about consequences because he wasn’t used to them. He could sweet talk his way out of them every time. I could argue my way into more consequences most of the time. I was always self driven and wanted to be sure I was getting my life prepared for success. I didn’t want to be in trouble outside of my house and I always did the right thing. My brother was constantly difficult later on and only cared about having fun and being social. I don’t even know what his plan was until he joined the Air Force. I don’t think he ever had a plan and just decided to join as his plan.
And yet somehow, I was the one who was always grounded, always in trouble, always the black sheep everyone refused to interact with and try to understand.
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