This Is What Sibling Abuse Looks Like

[NashVegas]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXh-EYcWCTc

YouTube video description: "Why did I have to wake him up like that? He looked just like an angel food cake while he was sleeping."

My description: pathetic asswipe films himself setting off an air horn in the face of his sleeping younger brother, who appears (not positive) to be a Down's Syndrome child. Kid wakes up, takes a couple of seconds to process what just happened, and immediately starts wailing. Calls out for Mom, who tells Sean to behave and goes back to whatever she was doing.

The video is likely just the tip of the iceberg.

If you're Sean this is funny as all hell, and maybe will be until sometime when you're much, much older and (if you're lucky) realize why your younger sibling doesn't speak to you more than once every 5 years. If you've ever lived through it, it's not funny at all. It's even unfunnier that your custodial parent does nothing to stop the abuse and is too harried to recognize it for what it is.

[Warpy]

1. Mom better wake up fast

because a lot of bullies end up in prison if they don't go to college and get snapped up to be fast tracked executives in multinational corporations.

[Xithras]

2. All siblings pick on each other.

It's pretty much a normal state of growing up. Show me a house where the kids are always respectful, never touch each other, and never harass each other, and I'll show you a house run by fascist parents who probably committed horrendous amounts of mental abuse on the kids to put them into such a state of constant fear.

That "pathetic asswipe" is a child. You can't judge him by the behavioral standards of an adult. Of course, neither of the kids appears to be parented well, judging by the fact that one seems to think that screaming bloody murder will solve your problems, and that the other pointedly ignored his mother when she told him to knock it off (that camera would be GONE if one of my kids did that to me).

[NashVegas]

4. Not To This Extent

People who grow up in homes where abuse is the norm use that argument all the time to justify what goes on. "Oh everyone does it." Spend some time in a healthy home and you'd get the shock of your life.

That "pathetic asswipe" is a child. You can't judge him by the behavioral standards of an adult.

That child is a bully, he is pathetic and will continue to be unless someone wakes up and intervenes.

[LostinVA]

9. +1

We fought as kids (and as adult!), but we were NEVER allowed to hit or bait or bully one another.

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

3. Oh please... these are normal sibling shenanigans.

I remember being the bane of my brother's existence when we were little.
Of course, I was always better at avoiding getting caught. :P

The only difference nowadays is that kids have cell phones and camcorders to document mischief.
Hopefully that kid doesn't have downs.
I think he's really disoriented because an airhorn just woke him up (lol).

[NashVegas]

5. I'm Sorry But It's Really Not

If the younger kid thought he had a fighting chance, he'd have started pounding at the bully instead of crying out for an intervention.

[Fast Dude]

6. I grew up with three older brothers

I was a holy terror, pain in the ass little brother. I took a lot of ass whippings from my brothers, probably 85% of them deserved.

Then one day they all learned something. "He's as big as we are now, and fighting older, bigger, and stronger brothers has taught him well. He can fight pretty damn good. We better leave him alone now."

[Taverner]

11. Every kid is different

Some kids are holy terrors in their youth, only to be fine as adults

Some kids are perfectly fine, only to be holy terrors in their adulthood

And some kids are always good, and some always a holy terror

As a parent, all I can see is a missed opportunity to use empathy to teach a lesson

[NashVegas]

13. You May Have Been a Terror

But the only thing the kid in this video was doing was sleeping. How much do you think he deserved an air horn in the face while he was sleeping, and being taped for an extra side of humiliation?

[jesus_of_suburbia]

7. My brothers did much worse to me (and my mom ignored it). The only way this bothers me is if the

kid is mentally challenged (which I couldn't really tell was the case... I'm not saying it isn't the case, just that I couldn't tell from the video).

[valerief]

8. I have a rageholic sister like that. Chased me with a carving knife, threw acetone

nail polish remover in my face, sat on my head until I almost passed out. Non-stop provoking and bullying. It took several decades before it dawned on me I never had to speak to her. And now I don't.

[NashVegas]

12. I Had a Brother Like That

It went on for 10 years.

6 years ago, we finally discussed it and he didn't waste a second. Said right out he knew he'd been abusive, and was deeply sorry and regretful. Due to the same problems which caused him to be an out-of-control abuser, he has lived up to not even 1/4 of his potential (amazingly talented individual) but at least he's on the right track now.

Funny thing, though. After he took responsibility for his actions, other members of the family, who said many of the same things others here are saying, ran for cover.

[valerief]

14. That's great. I tried to deal with it for fifty years before giving up.

Speaking with her honestly from the heart about her behavior only enraged her more. I wish I could blame it on booze or drugs, but she's been a rageholic her whole life.

[NashVegas]

15. I'm So Sorry

At least you tried. You took a huge chance and were brave.

[valerief]

16. Yeah. She left me stranded in Connecticut without a car (we lived in Massachusetts) once.

As soon as we got off the Long Island Ferry back to Connecticut, she just drove off and left me. She was angry, because she couldn't get a banana split from room service the night before at the Long Island hotel we stayed at. And the next morning I asked her if we could have breakfast in Long Island instead of Connecticut. That put her in a rage. Sick broad. She treated everyone in our family like that, too. I'm so sick of rageholics and bullies.

Don't respond. Just wanted to vent here. Thanks.

[Taverner]

10. No, this should have been a learning opportunity

Chance to teach Sean the golden rule - ask Sean "How would you feel if he did that to you?"

Make him empathize - connect it with one of Sean's experiences with bullies

Opportunity lost

[Toucano]

17. I don't think the boy has Down's Syndrome, but still

that's a fucked up household.

What the hell is the little bastard doing with an air horn anyway?

[backscatter712]

18. At least he didn't use a table...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8XaeAFaKl4