Child Abuse & Sibling Rivalries

[kadesma]

Are you serious? Is that her real name???

Relax Vera, her name is Judy, but I'm thinking they could be twins

kadesma

 

[rdcast]

oooo...X rated....

haha, mah last post had to be pulled, so yea, Iz bad, real bad !!!!!!!

 

[BigDog]

This has been fun to read.

I guess I don't recall too much stuff like this. I know I had wooden opjects broke over my backside, but nothing that would even compare to y'all.

'Bout the worst I recall is mom saying she wasn't cooking, so fend for yourselves. That's where I learned to cook! I recall Mom granting me permission to make a meal that caused me to call myself "Captain Cholesterol." Mom & Dad were going out with friends, and mom said to have whatever in the fridge since she was going shopping the next day. She looked in the fridge and said there are about a half dozen eggs and a pound of bacon. So, that's what I had for supper.

Thus my agreement with Emeril that pork fat rules!

Sorry, I digress from the topic.

 

[lulu]

My sister is almost twenty years older than me. As a sweetener for losing only "child" status she got to name me. Oh deah! My "real life name" is very individual! She and I were actually quite close when I was little....I think she really was my primary carer till I was about 4, when she left home it was like losing a parent.

But, she would have been mad not to make the most of her age and size advantage! The worst thing I remember now is she used to put me in our big old ali Baba type laudry basket and push me over the top stair and I would go clattering down. She convinced me it was a game at the time but it terrified me and I played a long just cause I loved her so. I shudder now at the damage she could have done.

I did chores, I think every kid should have responsibilties. From when I was very little I was the shoe cleaner....every weekend everybody's shoes. It was fun, and I am really good at cleaning shoes now. Other jobs thatr were mine when I was small were cleaning all the door handles and knobs and light switches and sockets. Cleaning the front porch and cleaning the bathtub. Those three jobs were always mine and Saturdays we tended to pull together in the house, Sundays the garden. It was ok. I think if you have to be involved in the housework you are less likely to leave a huge mess behind you.

 

[licia]

Well, I was the dreaded older sister. There were four of us - three girls then a boy. I hear that I was doted on until my sister came along when I was 2 1/2, then another when I was 4 1/2, then the boy when I was almost 7. By the time I was 10, I could do most anything in the house. I made the mistake of ironing one of Dad's white shirts better than my mom and after that it was my job (I still think it was rigged). I had to iron 6 of them each week. I didn't do babysitting since my grandmother had a house on our property and was quite willing to sit with us whenever necessary. I did lots of cooking and cleaning also, but mostly cooking. My siblings have sad tales about our growing up, but those blamed on me are ALL fibs. My mom thought I should always be busy, but never gave me a list, just gave me one job at the time and I thought that was cruelty. I did get back in some ways, like when my sister and I were doing the dishes and I went to the bathroom with my book and stayed til she finished them. Whatever the thoughts were then, we are fabulous friends now and look forward to getting together with or without our dh's whenever we can. We do agree that mom was a taskmaster!

 

[Claire]

Big Dog, that really rings a bell. When I was in high school, one morning my mom got up. My two youngest sisters were still in bed, it was me and my next younger sis and my dad, all getting ready for school. Sis and Dad are real grumps in the morning, I tend to awake happy until the world does something to change that. Mom took one look around the kitchen. Dad's sour puss. Sister's sour puss. She looked at me and said, "you know what? I'm not getting up for this crew any more. Claire, I'm sorry, I love you, but you are on your own." Then she went back to bed (she continued to get up and get my little sisters off to school, but an hour later when she didn't have to put up with sour dispositions). To this day I applaud her decision that morning!

 

[Claire]

We also cleaned a lot. In the summer or other school breaks, we "really" cleaned (that is vacuum cleaning, mopping, furniture polish, the works) on Mon-Wed-Fri. On Tue-Thurs-Sun after church we ran the "carpet sweeper" and a duster. I know Sunday is supposed to be a day of rest, and believe me, we tried to convince Mom of that. But quite often Sunday meant guests and that meant the house had to be immaculate. Saturday wound up being our "day of rest" (no, we were Catholic, not Jewish), when we had all our friends running in and out, sleepovers, etc. So if you wanted to find our household a mess, it was probably on Saturday afternoon. We were the "go to" house for our friends; they preferred to be at our house rather than their own. So those Saturdays were over-flowing. But nowadays that house-cleaning routine would be considered child abuse!

 

[Claire]

I know this is really child abuse: We were not allowed to do anything until homework was done. Period. So there were no after school activities. Period. Homework. You come home, you don't go to your room, you sit at the dining room table. You work until it is done. THEN you can (go to the playground, call your friends, etc).

 

[GB]

LOL!! I DO!! My Dad called me his remote control!

Not only did you and I have the same mother, but now it seems as if we had the same father as well.

He used to say "why do you think we had kids" when he would use us as a remote control or to go downstairs to get his tools for him.

 

[Claire]

I used to try to "keep peace" in the family. I was the eldest of four girls. My next youngest sister was the ****-raiser. Mom used to actually get angry with me for "taking the fall". It was easier to take the spanking or whatever punishment rather than living through the day or three that my sister could sulk when she got caught. It didn't last long, Mom has good kid sense and caught on quickly that "Claire wouldn't do that, XXX has to have done it." She'd seat me in between my two younger sisters to keep them from fighting -- even if it meant that I had to sit on the "hump" in our station wagon (I was very tall).

 

[rdcast]

So lulu, big sis shoved you down the stares then laughed and made you play with electric sockets ? You need a hug.

​

 

[Andy M.]

..."why do you think we had kids"...

That struck a chord! Dad would send you to fetch and if you complained, that's what you heard.

I also had to help with certain housecleaning tasks. I had to dust the venetian blinds as I was the only one tall enough to reach the tops. Sis did most of the housework.

We never owned our own home so I never had to address cutting the grass or raking leaves.

 

[VeraBlue]

My sister is almost twenty years older than me. As a sweetener for losing only "child" status she got to name me. Oh deah! My "real life name" is very individual! She and I were actually quite close when I was little....I think she really was my primary carer till I was about 4, when she left home it was like losing a parent.

But, she would have been mad not to make the most of her age and size advantage! The worst thing I remember now is she used to put me in our big old ali Baba type laudry basket and push me over the top stair and I would go clattering down. She convinced me it was a game at the time but it terrified me and I played a long just cause I loved her so. I shudder now at the damage she could have done.

I did chores, I think every kid should have responsibilties. From when I was very little I was the shoe cleaner....every weekend everybody's shoes. It was fun, and I am really good at cleaning shoes now. Other jobs thatr were mine when I was small were cleaning all the door handles and knobs and light switches and sockets. Cleaning the front porch and cleaning the bathtub. Those three jobs were always mine and Saturdays we tended to pull together in the house, Sundays the garden. It was ok. I think if you have to be involved in the housework you are less likely to leave a huge mess behind you.

Do you remember that white liquidy stuff in the bottle for whitening shoes? It had a sponge built into the top??

I remember having to clean the shoes, too..

 

[rdcast]

I remember that. Don't they still sell it ??? I had white "patent leather shoes" I wore to Church.

 

[Shunka]

I think I am related to most of you!!!! Besides the household chores, babysitting younger siblings, taking the punishments for said siblings; I also had feeding chores and chores to do on the ranches we lived on. My first stepfather was of the opinion that the reason you had kids was for free labor on the ranch and boy, did he work ya!!!! At 5 years old, I was working at least 8 hours a day in the saddle. Would come home and could hardly move but had to help my Mom with the stuff she wasn't able to get done by herself (sister just younger than I, never did have the responsibilities that I had). I look back now and you know what? I am glad that I do have those times in my life; I did learn quite a bit and feel sorry for so many of the kids today that might never know what a "good day's work" really is. One thing that my Mom and I talked about a couple of weeks ago was how her mother (my late Grandmother) would slap us in the face and tell us not to cry!! I mean, huh? Of course if we managed to not cry, she would do it again to make us cry. Now that in my mind, is child abuse.

 

[rdcast]

For whatever reason, mah dad would line up mah sisters n I (oldest to youngest) and ova his knees, spank the tar out of us with his skinny leather belt. My older sisters would always begin to cry, big time, before they even got spanked. Me, being the youngest would set mah jaw and never cry. Because of this, my sisters spankings were very short while, by virtue of my stubborn determination, dad would pound on mah butt till I thought I would lose it. Karen n Doris would cry even harder and beg me as they watched, "cry bobby, cry, just cry and he'll stop !!!". It made me so mad. Dad had to know that he either had to stop or do real damage. He was both a fine man and father but someone to fear when you did wrong.

 

[AllenOK]

Oh, yes, I remember solid-state channel knobs on TV.

When I was little, I had to clean my bedroom before I could watch any cartoons on Saturday mornings. I got in the habit of cleaning my room up after I went to my room for the night on Friday, but before I went to sleep. That way I could spring out of bed at 6 am, bounce down the stairs, get a bowl of cereal, and turn on the tube. I knew that the channel would already be set to the one I wanted to watch, as I had snuck downstairs after my parents went to bed and set the knob to the appropriate channel while the TV was off

I remember the white shoe polish with the sponge tip; I had to use that stuff on my band shoes during marching season.

When I was older, in my teens, I had quite a bit of chores to do. Cleaning house, dishes, mowing the lawn, etc. Of course, as long as I got that stuff done, my mother allowed me to go fishing as much as I wanted.

 

[rdcast]

Allen, u had the good life

 

[wasabi]

Remember these? We called them oxfords when I was was in grade school and all the kids wore them. I had the back and white ones. A bottle of white shoe polish with the sponge tip was always at hand to keep the white, white.

 

[Andy M.]

We called these Saddle Shoes. Never owned a pair.