Protecting My Younger Siblings

Moderated by Faigy Peritzman

I come from a small family living out of town. My situation began 15 years ago.

One of my siblings is a very difficult personality to live with. In retrospect, he may have had underlying issues, but to us siblings, he was an uncaring, unfeeling, mean person whose goal in life seemed to be bullying.

The guidance my parents received was to let this child “just be,” and eventually he’ll come around. What my parents didn’t realize at the time was that this approach was destroying their other children. Not only were we living with a bully, we had to ignore and cater to his whims. We followed our parents’ lead, but in the process, we became victims.

I never felt any resentment toward my parents because they’re amazing, caring, special parents who did what they thought was best at that time.