Techniques of Parenting

Last weekend my 14 year old brother decided to first ruin my movie night with a new friend. Julian, he’s a nice guy, just a friend. We were simply watching movies, hanging, you know…being friends. Of course not, my brother comes in and ruins the evening with his stupidity. I did not realize at the time he had been drinking, but sure enough, he had been. At the age of 14. He went off to his friends, later at around 1:40 I wake up to hear my mom going on about how she is picking up my 14 year old brother from the police station for being out pass curfew and being twice over the limit.

I for one was extremely upset, I couldn’t even understand how someone could possibly…do such a thing at the age of 14. I’m 18 and I’ve never had the urge to go off and do something so stupid. I’ve drank, but the alcohol was given to my by my mother. I’m a good child, I do all my work, my school work, I oblige to the rules. My brother on the other hand, complete opposite, because he has A.D.D. he cannot help it. Yeah, right. He gets off with everything. The one time I did something wrong, was when I fell in love with a guy on the internet and called him when I was 16. It took me a long, long time to regain her trust, and the things I loved to do in life.

My brother gets every little thing taken away he loves. And two days later, he is already taken off the little punishments. He got his phone back (which he got when he was 14, I had to wait until I was 16 — true when I started to call the one guy, but still!). And then he got to hang out with the exact same friends who influenced him to turn out this way. And now he’s getting the computer rights back.

He merely gets yelled at for breaking the law, drinking twice over the limit at the age of 14, and all these other things. And yet I’m severely yelled at for having pop cans on my floor. Why is it so easy to bash, what I like to call, the golden child, yet so hard to recongize the faults of the bad seed.