Need some serious advice

[jekylljuice]

Originally Posted by Nathander

I have the same problem with my sister, though my sister isn't exactly doing that badly with my parents. I think it's a common younger sibling thing, in all honesty, as I think younger siblings can tend to have a form of jealousy for the older sibling, and seeing you still at home probably drives him crazy and, thus, he accuses you of leeching because of his own jealousy.

Well, as a younger sibling myself, I wouldn't say that I think that's entirely true. I think it's probably a case of the grass always being greener on the other side of the fence. My older brother and I do get on reasonably well overall, but there is an extent to which he still bullies me now, when we're both in our 20s, much as he did when we were kids growing up. He's certainly not as hard on my lifestyle as Mr. M's younger brother is on his, but nonetheless his need to criticise me over the tiniest little things can get mighty tiresome after a while. I find it plausible that many older siblings would harbour a form of resentment for their youngers, since some of them never appear to get over the younger sibling's arrival and consequent diversion of parental attentions, but I reckon that we're getting a bit off topic here. So I'll simply repeat, the grass is always greener.

In your case, Mr. M, there doesn't really sound like there's an awful lot for you to be jealous about. I'm about the same age as you, and I have absolutely no interest in hanging out at bars, drinking intoxicating substances which have no appeal to me. I'm much rather curl up with a good book or cartoon. I think the best advice I could give would be to stop giving a monkey's about what other people think and to get on with what feels right to you. Admittedly, I'm not always brilliant at following it (as Niles Crane once said, "It's one thing to give advice, it's another thing to take it"), but I do think that it's quite a solid little tip nonetheless.