Respect

Oct 17, 2010

So I'm in MD for a big family event, my youngest cousin's bat mitzvah (thankfully, the last one I'll ever have to sit through).  This youngest cousin has 2 older sisters who are 16 and 18 years old. We all went out for a nice sushi lunch after the bat mitzvah ceremony.  The oldest drove to the restaurant and afterwards the middle wanted to drive back so she jumped in the driver's seat but the oldest still had the keys.  The oldest, who is away at college most of the time, basically threw a temper tantrum about it.  Yelling and holding the keys hostage, and throwing around the word "disrespectful" as if it meant something. Jumping in the driver's seat was a dick thing for the middle sister to do but the oldest loses all respect for making a ridiculous scene about a 3 minute drive home. I was staying mostly out of it, hoping she'd realize how illogical and stupid she was being, but no such luck.  I had to yell at her to give up the keys and eventually she relented and let her sister drive.  After they got home, the oldest, who was still pissed off, took the car and left for the majority of the night missing part of the family celebration with out of town relatives.  I wanted to be able to sit with her and talk to her about it without the other family and siblings around but she came home just as I was leaving for the night.

She needs to find another response to conflict instead of temper tantrum or running away.  I hope I never need to apply this experience to an adult relationship. There are some things worth fighting over, that was not one of them.