Cinderella and Three Sisters

Okay I'm not sure if I'm Cinderella but that is what my father always called me. He always said I was the sweet little sister who had three evil step sisters. My father seemed to favor me when I was younger, much to the dislike of my sisters.

My sister's weren't always the nicest to me when I was younger. Granted I was a little brat, like I said before I was a hot head and had a temper. I probably deserved some teasing at some point. But the constant teasing, bullying and even abuse just went too far.

I was the youngest and the odd man out. Between me and my sister, closet to my age, there was a four year gap. All of my other sisters were two and three years apart. They were just closer in age and excluded me.

I'm sure a lot of the bullying was done just because of the age difference. When I was seven my sisters were eleven, thirteen and sixteen. There's just a big gap, I was at such a different level then them. But every so often I was teased about my breast. My sister's would steal my breast form and throw it about in front of their friends. They would tell their friends my secret. And constantly take my breast form without asking, to wear in their own bras so that it would look like they had bigger breasts. While constantly calling me names if not about my breast then other parts of my body. I tried to laugh it off like it was a big joke, but then I would go back to my room and cry.

It was hard, especially coming from my sisters. I got a lot of teasing from my friends, but with my sisters I had to be around them all the time. It all became a vicious cycle the more they were mean to me the more I hated them and were mean to them, then it repeated.

The more they bullied and teased me the more I felt it was because of my one breast. It all seemed to come back to that. They didn't understand and treated me like I was different just like my mother.

My parents always stopped such behavior and punished my sisters. It was never allowed in my house, but it still happened regardless. All my parents had to do was leave the house and something bad would happen. My mom told me that they started to take me with them on errands because they were concerned for my safety. One of my sisters had tried to strangle me before and they were afraid that she would kill me.

Not a good environment to be in at all.

It was frustrating for me. I had no friends, not even in my family.

On the outside we seemed to be normal. Nice house, nice cars perfect middle class family living the dream. But I always felt like an outsider.

These problems got better as we all became older. I wouldn't put up with their crap anymore and I could protect myself from any physical abuse. But it never went away entirely.

My relationship with my sisters got overall better. I'm great friends with one, good friends with the other two. But the one sister that tried to strangle me we still struggle with our relationship. Not like that's a big shocker!

Don't let your other children tease, bully or abuse your child with poland syndrome. If this is happening you can try and let your other children see how it's effecting them. I knew it was me that my sisters couldn't stand so much, but never knew why. I always assumed it was because I was different from them and that's what stemmed all of the other bad things. You can't even imagine how this made me feel. I didn't feel like I was good enough and was very sad sometimes as a little girl.

I would try very hard to be happy. I would always smile, play outside and try and make new friends. But every friend I would confide my secret too would blab to everyone. It was hard to trust people. I wanted to really bad but I eventually built up a wall.

My mother realized later that she should have taken action and done something more with my sisters. She was sorry that all of that was going on and she wished she protected me more.

But no matter how down I got I managed to lift myself higher. It took time but I became stronger and discovered things about myself that I wouldn't have before.

You can't protect your children all the time, but I would hope that you could at least protect them from family.

Until next time...

You're Perfect just the way you are
No ones as Special as you