March 14, 2013

  • Brothers and Sisters

    The Mr. and I have a girl and a boy. The girl is older, and often (or maybe always) seems to take her brother for granted. The younger brother is always eager for his sister’s attention, and usually so giddy with excitement when he gets it that he becomes overly wound up to the point where she no longer wants to be around all that boy-ness.

    He is a hugger and a cuddler. She is less so.

    Yesterday, I was alone in the car with our daughter when she asked me this about her brother, “When we are older, will we talk?”

    I let out a little laugh and said, “I hope so!”

    And then she said, “No, I mean on the phone. Like you have a sister and you talk to her all the time, and Daddy has brothers that he talks to all the time. But I think it’s different, isn’t it? When you are a boy and a girl?”

    This broke my heart a little.

    I don’t really know of any shining examples on either side of our family, where a brother and a sister have remained close and in touch as adults. I wish I had some relationship to direct her to that would ease her worry. And mine.

    Instead, I focused on her brother. “If you have to have a brother, yours is an awfully good brother to have. He is sweet and caring and he loves you very much.”

    All of this is true, but she was doubtful. I also told her how much her brother is like one of his uncles – the uncle who can talk, and talk, and talk, and sweetly calls all members of the family regularly just to check in.

    “You may have to be the one to make the phone call, but I bet once he starts talking, you won’t be able to get him to stop.”

    She laughed, and we moved on.

    Do you have a sibling of the opposite sex? Do you have a close relationship as adults?

     

Comments (6)

  • I have one brother and two sisters, I’ve never thought about it but no I don’t talk to my brother like I do my sisters, although I think we are very close, we do talk on the phone when there are things that need discussing but not to just chat…I should change that…

  • I have several sisters and brothers, including my stepsiblings. I do text two of my brothers on a regular basis. Where we would not talk as often if they had to have an actual phone call, texting is easy and we enjoy sharing funny things or teasing each other via text pretty regularly.

    Plus, anytime we get back together as a group we all fall into the roles we had as kids again. I’m always telling people when you reunite with your siblings it’s like everyone is 12 again!

  • @mlbncsga – I love having a sister and wish my daughter had that, too. Bit not enough to have more babies! :)

  • @aSeriesofFortunateEvents – Good point – so much keeping in touch is done via text these days. Maybe that will make it easier. Of course, by the time they are grown, who knows how we’ll be communicating. Telepathically?!? Ha!

  • Yes, I have an opposite-sex sibling, and no, we don’t talk. Sorry.
    I am hopeful that my girls will be close as adults. Only time will tell.

  • @transvestite_rabbit – Given that I’m hiding upstairs right now so I don’t have to mediate their latest tiff…..it’s not looking good here b

Post a Comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *