A Different Kind Of Bedtime Story

(I’m about 23, and my brother is about 19. My brother goes out every night with his girlfriend, sometimes to parties, coming home late or not at all, if he’s drinking. I stay at home at my computer, but I stay up just as late while my mother goes to bed early. It’s about two am and my mother gets up to use the bathroom and comes up to my door.)

Mother: “Go to bed. It’s getting late.”

Me: “What?”

Mother: “Go to bed. It’s two am; you shouldn’t be up.”

Me: “Fine.”

(I stand up to hand her the house phone.)

Me: “Your son is younger than I am. If I have to go to bed, he’s coming home and going to bed, too. I’m not in bed until he is.”

(Weirdly enough, she dropped it and never asked me go to bed again.)