Episode 143: Same House, Different Stories with My Brother Casey (Part 1)

Same House, Different Stories with My Brother Casey (Part 1)

Mentioned in this episode: Episode 103, A Year Without My Mother

——

Content note: this episode includes childhood physical and emotional abuse and a parent's addiction.

How can 2 siblings grow up in the same house, with the same parents, and remember completely different childhoods? My younger brother Casey and I talk about growing up in a dysfunctional family, why one sibling ends up the golden child, and what it took to repair a sibling relationship our mother kept divided.

We discuss:

• Siblings with different childhoods: same parents, different experiences
• The golden child and the "too much" child
• How parents shape the way siblings see each other
• Growing up with an abusive stepparent and a parent with an addiction
• Secondhand trauma from witnessing abuse as a child
• Estrangement from a mother, and when one sibling stays close to her
• When your sibling describes a different parent than the one you know
• Waking up to family conditioning as an adult
• Sibling estrangement and repair