Daddy's Fish BowlA Clear View Of A Father's Family Experiences

Ty looks ready to handle anything Tre throws at him

When I first found out that Fefe was pregnant with a new baby, a swarm of emotions fell upon me.  One of those emotions was fear, I was afraid of a lot of things, the amount of worrying that I did during that time was enormous.  I remember distinctively wondering how Ty would react to having a little brother.  I was afraid that he wouldn’t like him, would treat him mean, or even bully him because he was so small.  Ty had been alone for 3 years, how would he adjust to the transition?  Now almost two years later, looking back at those thoughts, I see that I was totally wrong.  Ty has got to be the world’s best big brother; he loves Tre dearly and would do anything for him.  It’s Tre who’s the problem; he’s the one I should have been worried about when I was having these thoughts two years ago. 

Tre is a terror and menace when it comes to Ty, he adores his older brother but hasn’t truly mastered the concept of expressing those feelings yet.  Case in point, this morning Ty was still sleep, his door wasn’t closed all the way so Tre busts in the room screams in the highest pitch available to him.  He then runs to Ty’s bed and jumps on him, screaming TY, so that he’ll wake up.  Now I may be wrong, maybe that’s how brother are suppose to treat each other.  I was the only child, so the whole sibling thing is brand spanking new to me.  I didn’t have to share my space, time, or most importantly TOYS with anyone on a regular basis.  So maybe Tre’s actions are all just a normal part of the sibling accord.  Either way, I still feel bad for Ty, just seems like he’s getting the raw end of the deal here. 

I’m stock full of examples that show how mean Tre is to his older brother, but the one that sparked this discussion occurred yesterday.  It was lunch time and Fefe had sat the boys at their table, she gave Ty a lunchable and gave Tre some crackers.  While the boys were eating Fefe folded her last load of laundry, once she finished she returned to the kitchen to see Ty with the world’s saddest look on his face.  The boy nearly had tears in his eyes when she asked him what’s wrong.  She didn’t have to wait for a response once she laid eyes on Tre.  Apparently, his crackers weren’t good enough because he stole all of Ty’s meat from his lunchable and stuffed it in his mouth (remember yesterday’s video).  The sad part about it, he had just ate his own lunchable not even 5 minutes before that.

Fefe told him that was not nice and he proceeded to make amends by taking all 5 pieces of chewed up lunch meat out of his mouth and placing it back in Ty’s tray, on top of the remaining crackers and cheese.  Tre says “Thank You”, gets down from the chair and just walks away like he had done no wrong.  Do you know how that must have felt to Ty?  Not only did your little brother steal your food, but then he didn’t even eat it.  All he did was make it so that you couldn’t eat the meal.  On top of that, he then dug the knife a little deeper by rendering any remaining food unusable.  I don’t know about you, but I would have snapped! You gonna waste my food and then tell me “thank you” and just walk away.  If I were Ty, it would have been a fight at that table yesterday; I would have taught the little boy a lesson!  But nope, not Ty, he’s a saint.  He simply said, that’s okay, I guess I’ll have a peanut butter & jelly sandwich.  The pain in his voice was saddening; he had to go from lunchable to PB&J.  That’s like going to “Ruth’s Chris” and ordering filet, only to have your significant other eat it while you’re in the bathroom, and then the waiter tells you that all they have left are steak ums.

Ty quickly got over it and they both went back to playing, which means whatever toy Ty is playing with, Tre takes it.  Ty is getting smart though, and has quickly learned how to navigate around this type of situation.  He simply has to grab a new toy and once Tre sees him playing with it, he’ll want that and the previous toy will be free.  Even with all the torment that Ty endured throughout the day, when it was time for Tre to go to bed, Ty ran over and gave him a kiss and told him goodnight.  Maybe it was a kiss of relief that the boy was finally gone and he was free to play how he wanted.  Even if that’s the case, it could have been a totally justified slap instead.  So whatever the motive, it still shows Ty’s true nature as a nice and caring big brother.