DR. WALLACE: For months I've been looking forward to flying back east so I could see my favorite cousins and spend time with them! We live 1,200 miles apart, so it's a big trip that we can only take once in a while, and they also sometimes travel west to visit us in the same year we see them. Our families do this every other year.

I'm 16 and have two 17-year-old twin female cousins, and the three of us girls are inseparable when we're together! It's so much fun, and I enjoy every minute of their company. So you can imagine my disappointment when I found out that instead of flying there to see them quickly, my dad said we are going to take an Amtrak train for a few days to see the country on the way to where our cousins live. I just found out the reason is because my younger brother, who is only 7 years old, is afraid to fly on airplanes! He stayed with our grandparents two years ago, but he's going with us this time. This means that I'm going to lose valuable time with my cousins because of my wimpy younger brother! I tried to talk my father into extending our trip a bit to accommodate for all the time we will be spending on trains, but because my dad has to get back to work, he couldn't extend it at all.

I feel shortchanged here! However, I need to be fair and tell you that my cousins and their family are planning to drive out to see us about a week after we leave their area. It's kind of a tradition with our two families that we do back-to-back visits every other summer. They've offered to let my little brother stay with them until they drive out on their trip! Now he's getting extra time hanging out with them because of his phantom fears.

Do you feel as I do that it's unfair that my parents can't talk my 7-year-old brother into getting onto an airplane like every other kid in America does? — Little Bro Is Stunting My Time, via email

LITTLE BRO IS STUNTING MY TIME: It's up to your parents to decide if they want to try to impart to your little brother that he must fly on an airplane with the family or not. Sadly for you, this is not your decision, and there's not much you can do about it.

However, I see an opening for you on the back end. You mentioned that your little brother is going to stay with them an extra week before they drive out across the country to visit your home. Perhaps you can tell your father that you will offer to "chaperone" your younger brother during this week plus the driving trip out west. If you can convince your father this would be a good idea, your younger brother will have actually helped you gain a lot of extra time with your cousins! It's logical from my point of view and certainly worth a try to propose as an idea to run by your father. Good luck!

MY BROTHER IS TRYING TO MAKE FIREWORKS FROM SCRATCH!

DR. WALLACE: I'm a 12-year-old girl, and my 16-year-old brother is a total terror, especially this time of year. It's not even close to the Fourth of July just yet, but he's already crazy about fireworks and wanting to light things on fire and explode things. Every year for the past four years, he's been running around with his friends, shooting off all sorts of firecrackers and fireworks all over the place. But now that he's getting older, he's trying to actually make them himself, I think.

The other day after school, I went into our backyard because I saw him and his friend hunched over something that looked suspicious. When I got close to them, he just turned to me with a really mean face and yelled "Scram!!" at the top of his lungs.

I did go back into the house, but before I did, I saw him playing with matches and some leaves, twigs and some sort of powdery substance he was pouring over everything. Should I tell my parents what I saw, since they weren't there, or should I just let my brother eventually get into his own trouble by himself? — My Brother Is a Pyro, via email

MY BROTHER IS A PYRO: You need to speak up immediately. Your brother could hurt himself, his friends or anyone else who may be near him.

Trying to make a firecracker or firework from scratch is a very unwise idea and extremely dangerous. I personally knew a family that had a son who passed away over the Fourth of July decades ago trying to fire an antique cannon that was well over 100 years old. As the young man lit this really old cannon and covered his ears as he hoped to watch the cannonball fly forward, the cannon instead unfortunately blew up at its base, and he was killed by the shrapnel in the ensuing blast.

Absolutely inform your parents immediately before something terrible occurs. It sounds to me that your brother needs far more parental supervision than he's currently experiencing.

Dr. Robert Wallace welcomes questions from readers. Although he is unable to reply to all of them individually, he will answer as many as possible in this column. Email him at rwallace@thegreatestgift.com. To find out more about Dr. Robert Wallace and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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