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| I have two brothers and a sister. We do not see each other as often as we would like, but enjoy our time together when we do. When Dad died, Mom had us divide up his tools. We each drew a number to see who went first and we had his tools all laid out. We then each took a turn choosing which tool we wanted. We had a lot of fun picking tools and sharing memories. There were no arguments about who got what. We were all thankful for what we got.
Mom was always really careful to treat us all fairly. When she passed away it was clear that everything was to be divided equally. There was farmland involved and my siblings wanted me to try to divide it up in a fair way since I was the most familiar with the land. We had appraisals done so the value was established, but we needed to try to divide the fields up in a way that made sense. I agreed to do it on one condition- I got the last piece that was left after everyone else chose theirs. Mom had the rule when we were kids that if we split a candy bar, whoever broke it in half had to let the other person choose what piece they got, so I said I would break the land up as long as I got the last piece. That way I had an incentive to do it fair enough that it didn't matter what piece I got. In order to make it most equal, the person who got the best piece of land would have to pay cash to the one who got the worst piece so that things would even out.
When it came time to pick, my youngest brother wanted the piece that had the best hunting land. My sister wasn't interested in that. My other brother wanted the lowest value land because he wanted the extra cash for an investment they were planning to make. My sister had extra assets on hand, so she did not want that piece, and viewed the farmland as a good investment for them to diversify with. It was no big deal for them to come up with the extra cash to pay my brother so she took the nicest field. Before she made her choice though, she tried to get me to make my choice ahead of her. I told her a deal is a deal and she had to choose first. It was a great relief when she chose. The field she took was my favorite field, but I knew that the field we ended up with made the most sense for our family and I was glad it turned out like it did. If I had chose ahead of her, I would have taken the one I ended up with. Each of us got what we wanted in the end and we were all happy. I had tears of joy running down my face as I found out that each of my siblings was joyful for what they got and were also happy for the others. They were all worried that I was okay with what I go since I got the last piece. I told them that I got exactly what I wanted- what I wanted was that everyone was satisfied and happy. That included me. | |
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How close are you to siblings
