Memoir Mondays - How to Handle Sibling Fighting

It's Monday which means we can play Memoir Monday with Travis at I Like to Fish. I believe the only rule is that your memory has to be true. So write your post, including Travis' book below, and send a link to Travis. He'll post it with others. Check out the other memoirs. They are always good for a laugh.


My dad's uncles and aunts tell stories about how the six boys, three born before and three born after the three girls, terrorized their sister's boyfriends. I had three younger brothers, who never tried to intimidate my boyfriends. I'd like to think it was because they were so much younger than me. However, my parents and brothers will probably tell you that I terrorized my brothers and they probably thought I could look out for myself.


Currently, I'm at least eight inches shorter than the shortest brother. When we were younger, I was bigger for a brief period of time. For the most part I ignored my brothers. I was older. I was the only girl and I was "the favorite" if you want to believe them. (I chose to think I was the obedient and complacent child who rarely tested my parent's rules.)

My favorite story of my domination over my brothers is when I was in middle school. My parents had unique ways of handling typical parenting problems. We had to earn "chits" to watch TV. For every hour of TV I wanted to watch, I had to read 30 minutes and exercise outside 30 minutes. My brothers just had to read, because being outside wasn't a problem for them. I remember my mom got tried of me yelling, so she had me yell in the closest until I got it out of my system. Then they had their way of us settling our sibling fights. They bought boxing gloves and established a boxing ring outside and set the ground rules.


My middle brother (because the two younger ones are twins) was and still is a cocky guy. I don't remember the "fight" but I do remember my parents taking us outside to settle it. My brother, already taller than me by sixth grade, was dancing around me and throwing jabs being overly of himself. Thinking this whole way of dealing with sibling fighting was stupid, I just stood there with my gloves on and my hands down wondering when my parents were going to call off this foolishness. After all, I was a girl and their princess.



My brother started getting too close to me and my parents weren't stepping in. I am very protective of my face, having caught so many balls with my nose and eye glasses. So, I threw my first punch. It sent my brother flying backwards and through the screen door, knocking his ego down in the process. My parents never pulled out the gloves again to resolve our differences. I don't remember if it was because they decided it wasn't a good idea, or if all my brothers decided not to mess with me.

What have you or your parents done to handle typical parenting problems in your home?