These are not my children (this is an iStock image) ........
What? Did you think my children would behave like this to each other?
Well of course they would, and they did!
As an introduction to this blog post, I must share with you that the shrillness of my scream at my 12 year old tonight, in the Zaxby's drive through (yes, the window was open and the employee was standing right there) when I yelled "STOP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" would have shattered glass. I know it mortified my 15 year old. The two of them had been sniping at each other, the car was making a weird noise, and the drive through experience was taking longer than usual. I lost it. I don't think my daughter, at that moment, considered her brother an asset to have around.
Carry on, prompt........
This week, random.org "chose" Mama Kat prompt number five for me: Share a story about a sibling.
I could have random.orged again, since I don't have conventional siblings. But you know the best prompts are the hardest ones.
I have had the brother who was born before me, who did not survive. He is the one my son's middle name is after (Kevin). Obviously I never knew him, but I have always admired my parents for having enough hope to try again. I guess I might not have been here if things had unfolded differently.
Then there are my two half brothers, my father's sons from a previous marriage. While I have usually written pretty freely about my children, in deference to Mike and Gary I won't go on and on. I will say this: we grew up in different households. The man who raised them after my father and their mother divorced did a bang-up job. They are kind and intelligent (hey, we do share DNA after all!). I have the benefit of getting to know them as adults without ever going through an immature sibling squabble or snit.
Three brothers. Each of them has influenced me even though we weren't "regular" siblings.
In that "grass is greener" way many of us fall prey to as children, I always dreamed of having siblings. I always planned on having more than one child, on the premise that being an only child wasn't "ideal."
I don't know what I could have done differently at the "scream" moment tonight. I know I have a strong tendency to try to stop conflict in its tracks. I know conflict between siblings is inevitable.
I had a stillborn brother and I have two half brothers.
Tenley and Wayne Kevin are fortunate to have one another. Alive and "whole" siblings. Screaming mother aside.
