During a time, I felt I had power was when I was 15 years old. I am only a teenage girl who just got her hands on her first ever phone. I was not allowed to have one before, but my mom decided it was time for me to have one so that she could contact me whenever she needed too. She felt I was mature and responsible enough to have one at the age of 15. This did make me feel powerful compared to my 3 younger siblings who didn’t own their own phone. I have the freedom to have technology through hard work and taking care of responsibilities. My mom had me babysit my two little brothers and sister while she goes out for the night.
I held power over my siblings because I am their oldest sibling. I had to watch over them while they watched tv, feed them, and send them to bed. While they watched tv I was in my room doing homework for school. I had the door open so that I could hear them. Suddenly, I would hear my youngest brother screaming at my other brother. I run to them and try to settle their fight by telling them that they need to stop because I had to make sure no one got hurt. They unfortunately did not listen to me, so I had to call my mother to settle the dispute. She did tell my brothers to listen to me because I was in charge of them. The boys would say that they didn’t have to listen to me because I was not the boss of them. My mom would tell them that I am the boss of them because they are younger than me.
I was aware that I had this power over them because I had the responsibility of being the older sibling and making sure my younger siblings are behaving. I just never felt like it was my place to step in and do motherly things like scold them and help them with their homework. I decided to not see it that way and it changed my perspective to see myself as a role model and protector of my siblings. This did bring our relationship closer at times of communicating and bonding. My siblings started to come to me the more they trusted me to help them with things my mom couldn’t help with. Although I would have to make the decision yon consult my mother for help even if my siblings didn’t want her help. For instance, my brother came to me when he noticed his ear piecing wasn’t doing too well and decided to come to me to take a look at it because he was afraid that my mother would get upset to see that he wasn’t keeping up with his hygiene.
Unfortunately, the piercing looked bad and suggested that he take it out. He was upset that he had to take it out because I told him that it would take longer for it to heal. I tried to take out his earring, but it just did not budge. The backpiece seemed to have fused with the pole of his earring because he let so much dirt buildup. He was in so much pain and I was having trouble taking it out of his ear. So, I told him that I had to go tell our mom. He was upset but I told him it would be the only option because she could help us if he needed to go to the hospital. If he didn’t let me tell our mom, he could have probably lost his ear to the infection. He then trusted me to tell out mother, although she did scold him for it, but at least he was okay and didn’t have to suffer through his earlobe pain.
