SIBLING RIVALRY
There is much talk about bullying these days, but not much about sibling rivalry. Some of the biggest bullies are big brothers. I had two big brothers. Jim six years my elder did not pick on me very much, he had Chris, who was four years older than I, to pick on. I was Chris’ bullying target.
The bullying went Jim to Chris, Chris to Joe, Joe to….damn. The thing about brothers is the youngest probably deserves to be picked on. I know I was a pain in the ass to my brothers, and I also was horning in on their allotted time of Parental attention. Another thing about brothers is that as much as Chris picked on me, I had a protector from other older kids. Chris could tease and or torture me, but woe to the interloper who tried to join in on the fun.
Mom was no real help in limiting the bullying. When I went to her to throw my brother under the bus she would say, “Oh just ignore him” or “Well just stay away from him then.” Actually that was good advice, but I would not stay away, I always wanted to get in on the “big guy” stuff.
Chris never physically hurt me, he specialized in torture. His favorite form of torture was the “lugee (a sticky glob of spit) slurp.” Chris would get on top of me, pin my shoulders and arms with his knees, and then hang a lugee right over my screaming mouth. At the last second he would slurp the lugee and laugh as I would nearly throw-up at the thought of him letting it drop. Apparently this trick was taught to Chris the hard way by Jim.
On one disgusting torture session, the lugee dropped; right in my mouth. Ewe…yuck…gag! Chris laughed, although I think he was a bit grossed out himself, and I nearly threw up. That was the end of that particular mode of torture. The mere thought of a dropped lugee drove me to “crazy” strength and I could not be held down.
This summer, my oldest son, Mike, was visiting from Colorado. We got to talking about the sibling rivalry between him and his older sister and his younger brother. At one point, Mike started laughing as he told me, “The worst thing I ever did to Matt, was I used to pin his arms with my knees, and fake dropping a lugee into his mouth. One day I slurped too late, and it went right into his mouth. After that, I never had enough strength to hold him down like that again.”
The circle of strife!
When I baby sit on Thursdays for Matt’s two toddlers and I watch the interaction between these brothers, I can’t help but think that poor Connor has a saliva slurpee in his future.
Oh my goodness, I remember the epic fail fake slurpees. Of course I was always on the receiving end of it. Great post!
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Vickie
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Ewwww, you said saliva slurpee!
ReplyDeleteI have 3 boys and they rough and tumble, but they can be really sweet to each other too.
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ReplyDeleteMy brother is four years older than me as well. Oh the torture. I still think to this day he sorta resents me for being born & taking our parents attention away from him.
He used to actually spit the lugees on me. Not in my mouth, but on me. It always made me gag. In fact your post brought up so many vivid memories for me I gagged every time you mention lugee. Thanks! =o)
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Best way to get even with the lugee slurper, when it does fall in your mouth, spit it right back in their face. They will freak. Every time. Then you can barf on them.
ReplyDeleteThanks for completely grossing me out! OMG, this made me gag and I'm sorry, I couldn't read that whole section afterward....but I get the point :-)
ReplyDeleteCranky
ReplyDeleteThere is a little less than 1 year between my boys - 4 days less than a year to be precise!
Thjey fight and bicker like cat and dog and drive me completely insane. From time to time they forget that they pretend to not like each other and get along just fine - fine that is until I mention how well they seem to be getting along. Then they tell me that I have ruined it by commenting and go back to bickering again.
Thankfully they do not pin each other down and drop a slurpee down each others throats - that would be too gross!
Lou :-)
Flash back flash back...I remember the lugee my brother used to hold me down...OMG just can't do it...past dramatization to deep....
ReplyDeleteOh yeah! I had a younger brother and we'd do "saliva slurpees" and "The typewriter" (same position as the saliva slurpee, except you'd typewrite on the other's chest, then slap their face to return the carriage) to each other all the time!
ReplyDeleteI'm sure my boys will do exactly the same!
My husband's own story, to a T. He was the youngest of 3 boys, and to this day blames everything wrong in his life on the bullying he put up with. Same thing: his mother would say "Oh, just ignore him," rarely intervened. I'm sure to intervene between our own boys.
ReplyDeleteCould Chris lose his job for this admission? Hardly the stuff of an appointed official. Good post. SBZ
ReplyDeleteI was fortunate enough to never experience sibling rivalry (not physically anyways but intellectually it was on). Even though I was the middle child of three, I was the only girl and I think this made a difference. However, now being a mom of two very rambunctious boys I’m seeing it from the other side. I really hope my eldest doesn’t figure this form of sibling torture out!
ReplyDeleteLMAO!! The good ol' Lugee!
ReplyDeleteI have 2 older brothers and was always the brunt of sibiling rivalry. Their favourite was to throw a blanket over me and wouldn't let me get out. I hated it! To this day, I hate having blankets thrown over my head.
oh hilarious! I am the eldest and my two brothers are twins, so I managed to escape any bullying and didn't need to bully down as they had themselves to torture.
ReplyDeleteAlthough, I did dress them up in frilly dresses and push them around in my doll pram... that's a special kind of big sister torture. :)