My brother is 5 years younger than me and significantly overweight. He is under 18 and so I feel it is my responsibility to kick him into shape. I bought him an MP3 player and basic running attire (the best I could do as I'm kinda broke). He runs three times a week and I've set up a programme for him to run a bit further every time. My parents support his running and have been positive. All is well but his diet. My parents are highly educated people and so you'd expect them to be as forceful as I am in his weight loss plan. But no. Today, he bought ice cream and ate it twice. A few days ago I warned him to NOT snack. He bought ice cream then too and I made a point of talking to him about how important diet is in weight loss. His problem is not the food that he eats, it's the snacking. We eat practically the same meals except ice cream, cake, crisps. All of that ****. After our talk, he seemed to understand.
So, when he bought ice cream again, I was seething. I had to go to my room to avoid shouting at him. I calmed down but what I saw later really got to me. I felt emotional. I saw my younger brother, sat in our garden, eating a serving of ice cream. I told my parents to come and look. They did and my mum started berating me about how addicted I am to exercise, how much of a twig I am *in our language* and how obsessive I'm being etc. *Just because you're starving yourself/ a twig doesn't mean you should bother him* type comments. My Dad told me to "lay off him" which pissed me off further. I'm so lost as to why 2 fit and healthy people who work in healthcare could be so blase over how overweight their son is.
Am I wrong to be encouraging my baby brother in his weight loss? Am I wrong for being angered at him HIDING his snacking from me? The look on his face when he saw me watching him was filled with shame. He completely changed when he later heard my parents defending him and he started to insult me. I don't really know what to do. I feel like I'm in the wrong. I'm the one who runs 10-15k three times a week, tracks her calories and eats plenty of fruit and veg. The odd one out. I feel like complete **** when I have to deal with this issue, on one side and on my own.