But yeah, like everyone else in our family, they could go from zero to murderous in a fucking heartbeat.

J.D. Vance
About This Quote

I’m the oldest of five kids. My cousin is a year older than me, but we’re both only 13 years old. I have a younger brother, a younger sister, and an older sister that is a couple years older. My parents have always been very protective of my little brother and sister.

We’re not allowed to go anywhere without an adult. We can’t go to the mall by ourselves. We can’t leave the house without at least two adults with us.

And, if our parents are out of town for any length of time, they lock all the doors and windows in our house, just in case they try to break in and hurt us. So far, so good. But they also told my little cousins to stay away from us because they were too young to know how to act around children their age.

It would be so easy for them to snap at our little cousins or hit them or something like that, but they never did. And it wasn’t because my big cousins didn’t want to hurt them; they just wanted them to stay away because they thought it would be easier on them in the long run if they didn’t know any better.

Source: Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir Of A Family And Culture In Crisis

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