Kid ' s aren ' t very smart and don ' t have a lot of empathy . They can ' t really grasp the longterm consequences of their actions . I said a lot of really damaging things when I was younger . What they did is so obviously wrong , and I ' m super ashamed to admit it , but this sounds like something I might have done . Probably not at 17 years , but who knows ? I did a lot of mean , stupid shit . I feel terrible about all that stuff now . A lot of my biggest regrets in life so far are the things I did or said to other people before I knew better . Being mean has very delayed consequences , and 95 % of the time , that consequence is growing up , realizing that the things you did will always be a part of who you are , and then living with it . As for your brother , this played out the best possible way . As far as disasters go , this wasn ' t that bad . Hopefully , he ' ll mostly remember his father standing up for him when his brother was mean to him . Your father also showed that he ' s not going to let anyone get away with treating your brother like the adopted one , and that ' ll go a long way toward helping him feel better . I don ' t know how to feel about Kyle and my cousins now , is this forgivable ? Forgiveness is a decision you make for yourself , so I dunno . If your brother is a good person , he ' s going to feel a lot of remorse in the future . You guys are still a family . Kyle ' s just always going to be the one who told his brother he would be sent back if he ate food which sucks . But he still has time to be the one who throws awesome surprise parties for your brother on his birthday . There ' s no way to know until it happens .