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Message:: [QUOTE="Mansons2005, post: 269659, member: 121"]During the war years, when we all lived in my grandparents NYC house, I was in the unique position of being the acting paterfamilias in our home - all of the elder men were away, and family structure held that the eldest MALE was the BOSS. In practice, I was responsible for a household of 21 people, 11 of them staff, along with a constant stream of visitors, military, civilian, and refugee, some of whom stayed for extended periods of time. If you don't think power can go to your head when your great grandmother has to ask YOU for her quarterly spending money, when YOU get to decide which bedroom a general gets to sleep in, and when YOU hold the power of hiring and firing staff, you are wrong. Of course when I got too obnoxious I was slapped down by my mother and no one, NO ONE ever really ruled over my grandmother..........including grandpere. No, I never actually did anything "bad" or reprehensible...........but knowing I COULD was heady stuff for a young teenager.................[/QUOTE]