It also brought back other memories of how we used to beat the crap out of each other and count the number of hits received and owed. My brother would hit me, I would then owe him one hit back to be inflicted at any time. Being able to redeem your hit at any time was great if you were the hitter and terrifying if you were the recipient. I never knew when my brother or sister would strike, literally.
The best part of this story is that our grandmother is the one who inspired this system. We were at her house and someone got hit and tattled, grandmother's response was very simple "well, hit 'em back".
Game On Grandmother. Game On.
We also would build up a bank of hits and if my sister was out of hits and mad at our brother, I could give her one and vice versa. It was a complicated and efficient system of retribution.
I know for a fact we drove our parents crazy with it and now that I'm older, I admit that at a certain point I just started making up numbers of how many hits I had. I'm pretty sure Jacob and Laura did the same. And the violence we inflicted on each other obviously didn't kill us as we all turned out to be successful adults.
In addition to learning how to fight and stand your ground, we also learned about forgiveness... even though we didn't know it at the time. You can't be mad at someone for too long when you share a room, bathroom, and living space with. And you never knew when alliances would shift and the sibling you were mad at would be your partner and help you gang up on the other sibling. You can't have a successful alliance if you are still mad about the fight you had 5 minutes ago, so you get over things pretty quickly.
There's no point in holding a grudge when you are guilty of the same thing your sibling is. We all make mistakes and lose our tempers. Let it go and move on.
So mom and dad, I know we drove you crazy with our fighting but I learned how to stand up for myself, where to hit so it doesn't leave a mark, how to forgive, and to get over it from fighting with my siblings. It only took 30 years, but lesson learned.
Ha! With three girls, my sisters and I weren't all that physically abusive, it was mostly emotional. You're totally right about the shifting alliances though. It absolutely killed my mom that we didn't get along when we were younger. I can remember her actually shedding tears as she said, "I love my sisters so much. Why can't you get along." We do now, of course. They're my best friends. But it took at least 20 years...
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