Why me? Why am I the 'normal' one?

I found out today from my husband who found out from my mom that my kid sister is pregnant out of wedlock with a guy she’s been dating. Though my husband said my mother assured him that they were going to eventually get married, I’m betting 10 to 1 if they do get married it won’t last more than 2 or 3 years at most.

I also found out recently my little brother (who JUST turned 18 back in January and just graduated HS this May) has almost gotten thrown in jail three times already for speeding and open-container alcohol. Somehow he got off but how I’m not sure.

Why am I the only normal one who seems to have a reasonably un-screwed up life?

I just don’t get why fate dealt such a fairly normal hand and my siblings such a crappy one.

Ah, fate, you can be both kind and cruel. :rolleyes:

IDBB

Either you have more common sense than your siblings, or it’s simply a case of “there but for the grace of God go you”. Your choice.

That’s what I’m thinking, jr8. It’s by the grace of the Goddess that I haven’t fucked anything up yet too badly.

Hubby said mom knew after she was only like 3 WEEKS preggers because my sister is so skinny, if she eats a large meal she looks pregnant anyway. Sis is 6 wks pregnant.:rolleyes;

I blame her predicament on my parents. They divorced when I was 7 and she was 4 and I think ever since then she’s had a ‘love me’ complex where she’s always trying to find someone to give her unconditional love, no matter how bad this person may be for her. I suspected it by watching the type of guys she dated (druggies, alkies, emotional and mental abusers, that sort of guy) and now I know how true it is. The guy she is pregnant by is in the Navy because when he graduated HS, he got a choice: Go in the military or go to jail. I knew him in HS because he’s only a year or so younger than I and back then he ran with a drugged up, constantly drunk crowd and I can only imagine the kind of people he hangs out with now. I feel sorry for her, but I cannot make her decisions for her. Somehow I suspect she either got pregnant because he’s gone all the time onboard ship and she wanted to ‘trap’ him into marrying her OR…she was so desperate for somebody to love her that she didn’t care if she got pregnant or not and now is having the kid to have somebody to love her. She’s only 22 and her might as well be over now. She’s never had a decent job and though she’s a trained dental hygieniest, she doesn’t bother to look for a DH job because she’s too lazy to care.

And I blame my kid brother’s antics on my mom. He was born with a hole in his heart and was fairly delicate as a very young child. My mother made everybody treat him with kid gloves because she thought he was going to die, and therefore also let him get away with murder. Now that he’s older, he thinks he’s above the law and rules don’t apply to him, that he can do whatever the fuck he wants and get away with it like he’s always done. One of these days though…it’s going to catch up with him and he’s gonna find his ass in a jail cell somewhere in Tarrant County.

IDBB

It’s certainly no guarantee, IDBB, but as far as your brother goes consider that I ran with the bad boys as a teen and not just I, but almost all of us wound up straightening out and doing well in life.

My nephew sounds like your kid brother. In his case, he got nabbed when he was 16 (car theft), and was fortunate enough to have been given strict terms of probation instead of juvie detention. Having been forced to stay within strictly defined boundaries, he’s kept his nose clean long enough to finish both his probation and high school.

It sounds like your brother needs something similar – if he keeps getting away with shit, he’ll never learn. If he’s lucky, he’ll get a chance to clean up his act. If not, he’ll screw up his life. Unfortunately, there’s not really much you can do to make him change.

Ringo—I think some of the stuff my brother’s done recently is because he’s pissed that two brances of the armed forces (Marines and Army) turned him down because of his health problems. He’s fairly normal now, other than an occassional asthma attack because he smokes.

I’m hoping SOMETHING will come along to turn his life around. I don’t want him to go to jail because he’s basically a good kid under all this tough shit he tries to portray himself as.

IDBB

I hear ya… I have the complete Jerry Springer family and yet all my friends want to know how I ended up so ‘normal’

(For example: My younger brother is IN jail because when his girlfriend told him she was pregnant (she wasn’t) he decided he needed to do something to support her so he robbed a convenience store - the story becomes more amusing after that but I don’t want to hijack too badly!)

I was a very Wild Child, and my sister was Miss Perfect. Today I’m the “normal” one and she’s the one whose life has had several downturns in recent years.

And maybe your sister’s boyfriend is finding that he’s able to settle down a bit in the Navy. Let’s hope so, anyway.

Why you are okay right now, who knows? I’ve learned that there’s no predicting how people are going to turn out, based on their childhood. Sometimes I think it’s better to just go crazy and get it out of your system early like I did, if you’re going to. But hey, you don’t have to! :smiley:

MamaTiger–when I look back and see how I acted in jr high and highschool, I guess I was getting ‘it’ out of my system then. 2 suicide attempts in 4 years, partying till all hours of the morning, drinking, drugging, all sorts of things I shouldn’t have been doing. But once I got out of HS I realized I was too old to be doing that kind of stupid, immature shit and quit.
IDBB

Well, then maybe you did like me and got it out of your system young. I turned into a square old lady at the ripe old age of 22, and have led a frighteningly sedate life since then. So good for you for figuring out there’s better things ahead!

Me too, MT. When CG and I applied for a home loan at the ripe old ages of 25 and 22 respectively, the bank people were shocked at our stunningly good credit. Same with our cars. We have NO problem getting loans or credit cards because of our fairly blemish-free credit history, which is something not many people our age can say. Most people my age that I meet only want to go out and party and stuff when all I want to do is stay home and work on my flower garden. I am such a square.:slight_smile:

And I totally have the whole Jerry Springer family goin on. I am also the most ‘normal’ of the grandkids on my mom’s side too. When my uncle died, two of my cousins (who are a little older than me but not by more than 3 years or so) tried to kick my grandmother out of the home she shared with my uncle so they could sell it. It wasn’t enough that she’d paid for the hospital, his funeral AND given them my uncle’s boat and two cars. Oh no…the greedy bastards wanted everything. I think Gramma cut them out of the will after that.
IDBB