Their father eventually got old and died, but he never thought to split his inheritance between these two brothers. You can imagine the continuous feud between them until my uncle eventually died in a ghastly bike accident. This was quite unfortunate because I can never say if he had issues with my dad and must have carried some hate with him down to the grave.
One thing I was glad about was that they never had a physical fight because if they did and exchanged words and curses, my dad would have been tagged as a bad person or be seen to have used some witchcraft to kill his brother in order to inherit the property. This is a common thing in villages where siblings can poison each other in order to inherit each other's property.
Fast forward to some two years ago, and I heard my dad over the phone arguing with his stepbrother's children. They were rightly following in their father's footsteps and are demanding portions of the land as their own inheritance. I just hope that my dad will resolve the issues amicably and not have to fight with his distant nephews.
That was the case in their own extended family. Coming down to my own nuclear family, the sibling rivalry situation in my family was one of a kind. We are a family of nine with seven children, and funny enough, each of the two siblings that followed each other in the order of birth often picked on each other.
I have constantly noticed my two elder sisters arguing among themselves about who will do the basic chores in the house until the day my mum had to share the task between the two of them since I wasn't old enough to join in the house chores task yet.
Was that enough to end the fights?
Well, maybe it was reduced a little because there was always this sense of jealousy between my sisters whenever my mom purchased clothes or something for one person, leaving out the other.
Sometimes parents are responsible for the rivalry among their children when they fail to treat them equally by giving some fair treatment to the others.
Growing up to a certain age, myself and my immediate younger brother, whom you see below, became like another set of cats and dogs in the house.
Being his elder sister, I demanded some form of respect from him, but he wasn't ready to comply, so we often had arguments and physical fights. I wasn't strong enough to match up to his being a woman, nor was I ready to give in. Many thanks to neighbors who often split the fight because it got pretty bad and it will be a shameful thing for me to get beat black and blue by my younger brother.
That was the fight between these two separate sets of siblings in the order that we have followed each other. The next man in the middle was left out of the fight since the immediate one that was born after him died, and my parents did give it a good gap before having these last two kids here
These two are now something else that reminds me of my childhood days. The younger female, who is the last child of the family, is often picking on her elder brother, knowing fully well that she got our backing as the last child of the house and deserves some special treatment.
Troublesome baby of the house 😂
Growing up, maturity has put a stop to all of those childish attitudes. The worst enemies of each other are now the best of friends; my brother respects me so well, and my sisters are each other's confidants. I never knew that these days would come because during our mother's demise, the house almost fell apart because of our siblings rivalries, but thank goodness we now have each other back.
Parents are encouraged to train their children with equal love and kindness, discouraging preferential treatment of some kids over others. This is one of the many reasons that ignites the fire of rivalry among siblings.
All images are mine.
This is my submission to the #mayinleo and I'm using this medium to invite other other hivers to come and participate in this prompt with a lot of interesting topics via this link