The only child

JAB had a major fight with his sister tonight while I was at work. It was one of those fights where he�s sworn that he�s not going to talk to her ever again. He�s said this before but this time he seems pretty serious about it. This is all foreign to me since I�m an only child. I have close cousins but I have no idea how the dynamics of the brother and sister relationship work. When people find out that I�m an only child the question I�m always asked is whether I wanted a brother or a sister when I was growing up. The answer I always give is that I didn�t. It�s not because I was spoiled or anything it�s just the fact that in my reality I was normal. It was the people who had siblings that were weird. A couple of years ago a flight attendant told me that she thought my parents had committed child abuse by raising me as an only child. Luckily for her 5 years ago I was a type of person who just held things in. I wish that she would tell me that now. I know that being an only child I�m a little selfish. But I don�t think I�m any more selfish than people who have siblings. It�s just a different type of selfish. Unlike the stereotype I�ve always been a big sharer. I love to share what I have. It makes me feel good inside. But I�m selfish when it comes to my space. Since I was a teenager I had my own bathroom, my own room, my own clothes, etc. I never had to wear hand me downs or hear about how I had to take care of my clothes so I could hand them down. My parents never told me that I couldn�t do something because they had to save up for my brother or sisters braces. Because of that now I have a little problem with delayed gratification because pretty much whatever I wanted I got. Now that sounds like I was spoiled but in my household it was different. There were things that I wanted and I would get them but not all at once and not without having to beg and plead for it. My parents were very good at giving me a lot of gifts and such for Christmas and birthdays but it was never all I wanted. For instance, during the Star Wars craze I wanted the Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader 12 inch action figure. Yes it was a doll but back then any self respecting male called them action figures. Well that Christmas I got the Luke Skywalker doll but the Darth Vader doll was some knock off called Dark Evader. Yes that�s what it was called. I asked my parents later on in life why they didn�t buy me the real Darth Vader doll and they said that there were not going to spend that much money on two Star Wars doll. I guess in some books the fact that I got two dolls at all shows that I was spoiled. I don�t think so.

Well I feel bad for JAB but he�s showing what I always tell people. Having a sibling doesn�t mean that you�re going to have a friend for life. At this point I feel fortunate that with all the other issues I have to deal with in my life, having a snotty sibling is not one of them.

My Weather