Chapter 12 - Ethan stops eating steak
Melissa told me something I had not expected.
Ethan refused steak.
At home.
At restaurants.
At Dad’s house once during a visit without us.
“Why?”
“He says Lily gets the bad kind.”
My stomach tightened.
Melissa had tried:
“That was Grandpa making a bad joke.”
Ethan responded:
“Then steak makes people mean.”
Seven-year-old logic.
He also began checking whether Lily’s gifts matched his at family events.
At Aunt Karen’s birthday:
“What did Lily get?”
At Christmas discussions:
“Is Lily getting one too?”
Golden-child guilt.
Different injury.
Still injury.
Melissa started therapy for him?
Not immediately.
She spoke with his pediatrician and school counselor first.
Reasonable.
The counselor said:
“Don’t make him responsible for correcting adult favoritism.”
Exactly.
So Melissa stopped saying:
“Share with Lily because Grandpa gave you more.”
That only transferred the adults’ obligation to Ethan.
Instead, she handled the grandparents.
Equal rules or no joint gifting.
No comparing.
No jokes about toughness.
No calling Ethan:
the easy one
in front of either child.
My sister changed faster than my parents.
Why?
She had less identity invested in being right.
Maybe.
Or Ethan’s anxiety scared her.
She told me:
“I thought being favored couldn’t hurt him.”
I said:
“It can feel like love until the kid realizes it has conditions.”
Melissa looked away.
“Were we like this?”
We.
Children.
Me and Melissa.
“Yes.”
She nodded.
May you like
“Yeah.”
We both knew.
