My little brothers are identical twins. They’re about four years younger than me, but their upbringing has been totally different than mine or my other siblings.

My parents got divorced and spent so much of their time afterwards being very wrapped up in the backlash from that, that they really didn’t step up as parents. But when my little brothers started getting to an age where they needed parental support to do after-school activities and whatnot, my paternal grandparents stepped up for them to fill the void my parents left.

As time went on, my little brothers got a lot more opportunities and less insecurities from all of the support, and became quite popular in their school and the favorites of my father’s side of the family and my grandparents themselves. They were/are the “golden” children. But like a lot people who get spoiled like that, they definitely have their issues.

They’ve gotten the cops called on them to stop fights between them. They’ve gone to school events drunk and gotten in trouble for it. They (at least used to) have little respect for women and had a revolving door of them. Despite all this, they still are going to a great university because of all these opportunities they’ve taken, and my grandparents turn a blind eye to their faults.

This support has not gone by unnoticed by my two sisters or I as well. My sisters cannot stand them and are extremely angry that they’ve gotten treated so much better by so much of the family. Now they rarely see each other even though they live in the same town.

It took me a while to get past all the hurt of being rejected by my family like that. Eventually I came around to be supportive of them as well. They have more opportunities than I ever had, so I want them to take advantage of that and have a kind of life I never could for myself.

I realize that I may be behind a little in life because of my parents, but I eventually found my unconditional support in my fiancée. I’m just grateful that I didn’t continue down the reckless path I was going down because of all the pain that stems from that lack of support for so many years. I wish my brothers well and hope they can continue to have the kind of support they’ve had through their whole lives.