The things that saved my childhood were reading voraciously and spending the summers at band after I got to junior high.. my mother wanted ONE kid - guess who was number two?
She HATED her sister that was born after her and all my life she has called me by that sister's name - and guess what - she 'got to' do anything she wanted to that "sister" after I arrived...
I have thanked God numerous times that I did NOT get the mental instability that plagued her and my sister and that my children and their children have been spared.