My brother
My brother was always small for his age. Like really small - sub 5-foot until he was into his late teens. As a result, my parents became really protective of him from an early age and would always want to be seen to be supporting him as much as possible. They would support him in whatever hobbies he had, go to his chess competitions, his quiz matches, let him join cub scouts all that supportive parent stuff. They would also buy him whatever he wanted, which was great because I got the stuff he got bored of and there would always be a new computer in the house. They got him a tutor to help him through his GCSE's and A levels and then found him somewhere to live and gave him a load of money to go to uni - which he pissed away and never managed to pass first year.

What this meant for me, unfortunately is that there was no time and no money for me. My parents never came to my football matches or my swimming competitions. My toys were strictly hand me downs. And there was no money for me to go to uni (I even had to leave school and go to college when I was 16, so I could get a job and study at the same time).

Now, I would be bitter about this, were it not for the fact that I have a house, a lovely wife, my own Honda Accord, a decent job, prspects and some actual social skills.

My brother, on the other hand has just gone back to university, because he couldn't really hold down a job. He's ony just moved out of my parents' house, into a bedsit (he's 36). He has a complete lack of social skills, to the point where I will not have him anywhere near my friends, because he pisses them off so much. He has very few friends. And my parents still have to ferry him around everywhere - they actuall take him to Tesco once a week to do his bigshop.

While I didn't like being very much the number 2 son when I was a kid, I've come to realise that it's made me a much better person and I'm glad it worked out that way. Though I still feel a little sorry for my brother.
(ScousersPet, Fri 11 Sep 2009, 10:08, Reply)