Now that my baby sister was recently born I look at my mom and I see her struggling with having to stay home all-day and taking care of a baby. She wants to go out she wants to clean the house, do something, but she can't.

A couple of problems have come up with the new family member. From the very day that my mother told us she was pregnant my sister reacted in such a negative way. She was stressing out with college apps and the cost of college. In her eyes, a baby meant no money for her college. She freaked out and screamed at my mother. She told her that this kid was a mistake. There would be no way that my parents could take care of her since no one was ever at home. She said there would be no money and time for the baby. Throughout the pregnancy though it seemed her ideas completely changed, she was excited. She would talk to the baby and always lay by my mother and watch the baby move inside my mother. On the other hand I was extremely excited when my mom told us she was pregnant but throughout the pregnancy I constantly got into arguments with my mother and I just couldn't stand her or her obsession for the baby.

As soon as my mother gave birth we all went back to our original ideas. My sister hated the baby and I adored her. But my sister’s comments really bothered me. Whenever she’s mad at my mother or something is going wrong she blames my mother. She tells her that she told her so. That having a baby at her age and at this moment was wrong and that it was her fault for all the things going wrong in our family. At first I just thought it was her typical behavior and that my mom didn't mind it. I thought she had learned to ignore it, but I was wrong. I noticed my sister’s behavior was terrible when she made my mother cry. That was a terrible scene I walked into. I had gone downstairs after my sister scream at my mom. When I cam back up the stairs to see my mother, she was breastfeeding and seemed perfectly fine. I sat by her and out of nowhere she started crying. She was sobbing uncontrollably as the baby stared at her. I didn't know how to react I was so surprised. My sister had never made my mother cry. As a matter of fact, it had been years since I’d seen my mom cry. It was a terrible experience but worst of all was that the baby was watching her. I fear for that baby sometimes.
We are a very dysfunctional family. So many things are wrong with us. My sister as you may have already gathered is wild as well. As little girls we would always get into arguments but they weren’t like arguments all little kids had. She would overreact about everything. A small argument over chips would turn into an extreme fight. She could not control herself and would literally beat me up. She was so strong; I was never able to beat her. No matter how hard I tried she would always win. We would fight so often and there were points where we wouldn’t even talk to each other. Our fights would get pretty bad. The fact that she would beat the heck out of me meant that my parents had to be brought into the argument and so we would all start fighting.

I always held this resentment against her because I felt all of our family's problems were due to her rebellious attitude. There was no way to control her once she was angry, which was often. She had no respect for my parents and would treat them like s***. She would scream at them and laugh at them whenever they spoke to her. She’d even call them names and simply walk away from them when they spoke to her.

There was a very tough time my family went through a couple years ago and I honestly thought it was all her fault. I was about 12 and it all started during an argument between my sister and my mother upstairs. I was downstairs with my dad and I heard screams, when I found the courage to go check what was going on I found them arguing. It was getting worst and worst and there seemed to be no way to stop them. I called my dad up and he tried to stop them but simply couldn’t. Years ago my father had promised himself he would no longer hit us but this time the situation called for a spanking. She was completely out of control. When my dad took out his weapon, which was his belt, my sister ran downstairs. My parents went to chase her. I was so young and confused. I stayed behind to try to understand what was going on. When all of a sudden I heard my mom call me. She was screaming to call the cops. I could hear the shakiness and how scared she was in her voice. I ran downstairs to find my sister holding a knife. She was laughing hysterically and I turned to see my father’s face. He was terrorized. His daughter was holding a knife towards him. My dad was able to slap the knife out of her hands and jumped to hug her to push her away from the knife. I was so confused. I had no clue what had just happened, it all occurred in a matter of seconds. After this moment my family was never the same. There was some tension and for a while none of us really spoke to each other. Our house was cold and silent. There was no sound and it took us months to recuperate from the incident.

About a year later my sister told me her version of the story. I was so scared. She explained to me that with that knife in her hand she felt so powerful. She said that she found the fact that our dad was scared of a piece of metal hilarious.

Her story gave me the chills but I’ve always found her to be an extremely interesting person. When she was young, everyone thought she was going to go far. The reason being that she is extremely smart and has great artistic abilities. But as she grew up she became extremely lazy and didn't like doing work. She didn't lose any of her skills but what's the point of having them if you are just going to be lazy and not use them. But despite not doing her homework or any work at all she was still able to get the best test grades in her classes. She’s amazing. So much is stored in her brain. But she is extremely mysterious. For one part, she hides everything. She is an extreme introvert and hates socializing. She can only work alone and at 3 am. She always views things in ways that I could not even imagine. She analyzes everything everyone does and says. She loves watching everyone’s behavior. She almost seems insane; she blanks out so often. When you ask her what she’s thinking about she will say nothing.

I have been raised in what I’ve always thought to be a very dysfunctional family. One full of fights and arguments. Looking at the bad side is always much easier to do, and that’s what I’ve always done. As I grow up I continue to look for and find flaws in every single one of my family members and in the way we interact. I have stayed up countless nights thinking of why I have ended up in such a messed up family. What I have failed to recognize is that not every family is perfect. Not everyone works well all of the time. There will always be arguments and fights and I have to learn to accept those. Believe it or not, my family may be closer together than any family out there. And why is that you may ask yourself? Because all of those fights have brought us each a little bit closer. They have helped us learn a little more about each other, our views, and our behaviors. They have made us into the great group of people that I am glad to call my family.