By DIMITY KIRKWOOD
Welcome to our weekly Open Post, the place where we come to talk about how our week’s going so far, or to rally everyone together to help me find my bike.
Please.
You see my bike, affectionately named Red Rocket because of its red sheen and ability to go so fast no one would even see it flash past, has disappeared.
Well actually, and I don’t want to alarm anyone, it was stolen from a very “safe” inner city spot in Surry Hills, NSW.
Before this, my little Red Rocket and I had been through it all together.
Whether it was up a very steep hill, or down a road with tram tracks, Red Rocket was a noble steed bike that could never let me down.
As of yet, I have no leads to catch the bike-stealing fiend, but I imagine they look something like this:
You will most likely see them cruising around on the fastest looking bike, which looks exactly like this:
If you see it, be alert but not alarmed. But most importantly, comment below.
Or ideally, the bike thief is a fan of Open Post and reading this now. In which case, I am willing to split custody and you may have him on weekends. But please, just bring little Red Rocket home.
Over to you. How has your week been so far?
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Top Comments
My brother has ruined my family.
He is a horrible person. Self involved. Bully. He is 29. He is moving out with his new, 18 year old, girlfriend. I worry for her. He is a stalker. He thinks it is appropriate to send 70+ messages in a 2 hour period to said girlfriend. He thinks it is appropriate to have a say in what his girlfriends wear / who they talk to and obviously if they do not reply / answer his communications immediately they are sleeping with someone else. He has used violence in the past to get his own way. He will not go to counselling, as he does not believe in it, or that he has a problem.
But to the public eye he is caring and a complete family man. Little does the public know that when there is a girl on the scene his son receives little to no attention (remember the 70+ messages in 2hours, leaves little time for parenting!!!!).
I wouldn't care and could happily cut him out of my life, but he lives with my parents and my nephew is the greatest boy in the world.
Having someone in my family that treats women/people this way goes against every grain of my being. The fact that he gets away with it cause we are all too scared to do anything, drives me insane. This is shit and has torn my family apart. He is happy though........
I have tried removing myself from the situation, but it has been to the detriment of my relationship with my parents and my nephew.
What to do???
That sounds like a horrible situation and I wanted to say I'm thinking of you. I also have issues with my family and it's so hard. When do you cut them out for your own sanity and when should you keep trying? Is there someone you can talk to about it, whose advice you trust and isn't directly involved in the family? A wiser older friend or something?
I think the thing that resonates most with me is that there is a child involved here, and I think whatever you can do to make sure he doesn't end up either learning those behaviours from his father or being damaged by them. And that's not to belittle the fact that the rest of your family (and the girlfriend) deserve peace and happiness without your brother's violence/abuse/control.
If your brother really refuses to see anyone or work on his behaviour, maybe you need to go to the authorities - for the sake of your nephew? I don't know, I would never normally suggest that, but if you really think there's no way he will voluntarily change and he will (by the sound of it) be such a bad influence and potentially damaging to his son, then maybe you need to weigh up if that's something to consider? I wish you all the best.
I would say just be there and make yourself available to your brother's girlfriend and son. Give them your number and let them know they can call you at any time.
Thanks for your thoughts NN, I appreciate it!
I have considered the hard options..... I have also considered burying him very close to a meat ants nest, but I guess that would put me in the same bullying category :-/
What do people do when their families are functional???
Well I'm off (0500 Thursday) for my (postponed from previously) Boys Camping Weekend. Hopefully there won't be too much storm damage to clean up, so we can spend more time kicking back.
Enjoy, Fredd!
Thank you. We did.
No luck on the, "Hopefully there won't be too much storm damage to clean up," front. Still, chainsawing up trees is fun too.