Bea Lewis

My friend, Lenore, has two children -  a son and a daughter. The son, Steve, is a college graduate, but can't keep a job for long and Lenore  is always bailing him out  to keep a roof over his head and food on the table for his wife and two little children. 

Lenore's daughter, on the other hand, is an accomplished attorney, working with a large law firm. Beth is married to a surgeon and the couple  have two children. If anything Beth is always doing and buying  nice things for Lenore, not the other way around.  Although Lenore knows that siblings, no matter what the age, can be jealous of one another, not in a million years did she suspect  her daughter being jealous of her son.

But Lenore found out one night when the family was together at a cousin's birthday party. Out of the blue, or so it seemed, Beth accused Lenore of  always bailing out  Steve, giving him far more attention than she ever had. 

Through her tears, Beth said her brother was " the squeaky wheel of this family,always getting greased for his inability to keep things rolling along'  I'm the hard-working wheel and never get noticed,'' 

Suddenly Lenore realized she had overlooked the needs of her outwardly sefl-sufficent daughter and told her she never realized how she felt. "I was always proud of your independence, but I guess I took that for granted and didn't need to acknowledge it,'' .

Lenore was sensitive to Beth's  jealousy, and Beth  was pleased to hear her mother express pride in her indepedence and accomplishements, something she rarely heard  from a mom too busy "greasing'' the squeaky wheel sibling. 

(I've changed the names, but this story is the same.)