My young life
Obviously a lot of this is from other people's comments and perspectives about the time, but some is also fact or my own memories!
My parents were married (both for the second time) when I was born. My Mums side of the family were always very close and we saw a lot of them, however my Dads side was exactly the opposite and from my memories we seldom ever saw or spoke to them!
I was the first of 3 boys and was also the first grand child on Mums side of the family and was very much everyone's pride and joy to start with at least! Then along came my 2 younger brothers, one 3 years younger than me and the second one another 3 years later.
The middle brother had a lot of issues from a young age that caused him to have all manner of mental health and behavioural issues, more on that to follow in later posts! I think this started to be when I, as a relatively well behaved and by all accounts well mannered and mature beyond my years child, got marginalised as the middle brother was such a challenge!
Then came the youngest he was always from day 1 the golden boy and was very clearly and obviously the apple of my parents eyes. He was also pretty well behaved and mannered but he always got a lot more attention than I did, probably based around me being older etc but it didn't stop it hurting and didn't stop it leading to me feeling left out .....