Having worked with my share of teenagers for almost 30 years, I understand what the Swedish author, Fredrik Backman, is saying when describing a person of that particular age in one of his novels. Backman writes: “…a teenager..., with all the divinely sanctioned charmlessness and impoliteness this entailed, sat at one end of the table like an irritable accessory”. And – although I love that description and have encountered such surliness over the years, it is somewhat stereotypical and not one I have encountered with my own preteen and teenage grandkids. In fact, I find them fun to be around and to be active participants in my life. One grandson, having navigated those teenage years with success, is now classified as an adult. Where does the time go? Anyway -- moving on as time tends to do -- all my grandkids are clever and have great senses of humor -- humor that they are not afraid to share. The following is a case in point.
Just last weekend my one teenage grandson texted me a “phone photo”
of his little sister asleep in the car as they were traveling on a family
outing. She is eleven. I didn’t notice it at first, but
after he texted me the second time with a painstakingly kind explanation, I
noticed that he had carefully stacked several coins on her sweet, little preteen forehead. There she was -- sound asleep -- a little angel with thick braids... and a large stack of coins protruding from her head. (How did I not notice that at first glance? I guess I was admiring her shiny thick braids.) Anyway -- after I stopped laughing, while
at the same time wondering what she would later describe as waking up to coins raining down
her face, I texted him that his uncle would be proud. You see -- his uncle was/is a big brother with a
little sister too handy not to torment while growing up. Especially when they both were still living at home, he always found teasing to be something he could not resist. One of his favorite things for a while was to just pick her up and move her if he wanted the spot where she was sitting -- a tendency that she found most annoying. Is this a big brother syndrome of some sort? Is being the target of
teasing merely a part of being the little sister? Or – does it just run in my
family? You tell me.
I, personally, never had a big brother… although … I did
have a close family friend who seemed to love to torment me off and on… sort of
like a brother. But the thing is – I
could escape from him as we didn’t live in the same house. My daughter and granddaughter didn’t/don’t
have that option. Even now that both my kids are adult and on their own -- just this week my
daughter’s big brother posted nutty pictures on Facebook in “honor” of his
little sister’s birthday. It continues. I have to say
that I eagerly await the payback. At this stage that sort of thing is really sort of fun.
As I do tend to look on the bright side, the thing is that I personally think it is a blessing to
grow up with a big brother in that it sort of forces the little sister to develop
a sense of how to cope with such antics. I am thinking, for example, that my granddaughter at least was able to keep the forehead coins. Hope so. That would be a plus. Both my daughter and granddaughter are much better sports about things like
this than I am. Is it because of the big brother thing? Just askin’.
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