A Marine's Brother...Is He Jealous... The answer was in the laundry!

Admittedly Marine Corp's Mom's are obsessed with their Marine. We know their PFT scores, how well they shoot, points they are waiting on for promotion and any thing they can do better. We swear we don't think they are better than the other branches..but honestly we probably do. They all wear different colored belts depending on their McMap skills and levels and we know what color they wear and whats next. So here is the rub...what about the other children in your family. What do they feel and how do they feel when their brother or sister is the center of the universe. Are they jealous and wish that all this Marine Momma drama would go away...

So the answer is in the laundry for me. My other son is amazing. He is a happy young man and he has caused us very few sleepless nites unlike his high speed brother. I was home one day and my Steve had dropped his laundry like all college kids do and was running to the police station to visit his Dad who is an officer. So I started doing what my son's call the magic laundry...you drop it anywhere in the house and the next time you look for said laundry it is packed back in the same bag smelling great and folded neatly. So was pondering does this wonderful child understand how much we adore him, respect him and know that his value is as great as his brother's. The answer was in the laundry. I noted that his most worn tee-shirts where the two Marine t-shirts both given to him by his brother. He also had jeans and sweatshirts and other apparel he had conficasted from my Marine using the Gear Adrift Gear A Gift policy that my boys have always had...noting that this time Nic's gear was hung neatly in his closet before deployment which does violate said policy. Mind you I would have got on him about this but in a recent picture of Nic in a distant land the caption read yes Steve I stole your new t-shirt and also your sweatpants and a couple other things you can watch for in photos... Oh yes as he prepared to deploy for almost a year he packed several of his brothers things...

When I went to pack Steve's clothes in his room I noted how much Marine paraphenalia he had. Steve has no intention of being a Marine but he takes great pride of his brothers courage. Steve does not feel the need to be Nic any more than his father and I do and he is awed by his brothers service just as we are.


I had spent so many nites lying awake and worrying that everyone felt loved equally (do men ever lose sleep over such thoughts?) and the answer was there all the time in the laundry.