Happy Siblings Day-Lessons Learned

Today is Siblings Day and I can't not celebrate the day without imparting some very wonderful wisdom from growing up with two sisters and a brother.  Though we do not live close to each other, if you've ever heard me complain about my phone blowing up, it is usually texting from my sisters.  So here goes:

1.  It is always better to cut your younger sister's hair then your own.  That way when you make a mistake you're not paying for it, she is.

Sorry Jen, you didn't make it.

2.  When changing a younger sibling's diaper, it is not a good idea to hold the baby powder upside down and squeeze.

3.  The best type of torture on a sibling is the usual "Mom's not around concoction" this includes usually ketchup, mustard, hot sauce, pepper, sugar and PeptoBismol.

4.  Remember to always strengthen your pointing finger, you will use it quite frequently during your childhood saying, "She did it," or "She made me do it."

5.  Many of your great ideas should usually stay great ideas.  If you are going to try them on your siblings, try to put some type of padding on them, at least a helmet.

6.  If you ever want a total recall of your diary, as your sibling.  This works even 30 years later.

7.  If you are last child born into a family, you will not make many family pictures.  Sorry.

8.  As you get older, it gets harder bribing a sibling at keeping their mouth shut when you have a momentary lapse in judgement.  They seem to like watching you being tortured by the parents more than keeping their mouth shut.  Money sometimes works.

9.  It is best to be aware of the sibling allergic to poison ivy, especially when you watch them wiping themselves in the woods with it.  Helps you keep your mouth shut while laughing.

10.  When you get back together at any age, you immediately fall back into the sibling rivalry you had as children.  You usually revert back to acting as children as well.

11.  Be happy that we grew up before camera phones.  There would be so much blackmail material - from us acting out Grease, to making up our own commercials, to playing "school" the day after school let out for the summer.

I love my siblings because they made me who I am today.  Our witches brew in the backyard, King of The Hill usually ending up in a fist fight, to now laughing at all of those stories years later.  It has always been said that all three of us sisters have "moxie" so I guess it does run in the family.  Here's to many more inappropriate ideas down the road to chasing each other in our wheelchairs!

Happy Siblings Day!

WTF - Sibling Edition

Recently I watch my two sons get into a WWF showdown type of smack down over the last jawbreaker.  I also watched several people within sighting distance watch my two sons in horror.  So I'm asking, am I raising serial killers or when you were a kid did you:

Sibling Game Playing:

Older:  "Where's going to play the pillow fight game."

Younger, "Yay, that sounds like fun."

Older, "OK, you hit me first with your pillow."

Younger, "OK."  Light tap in brother's face.

Older then proceeds to smack the crap out of the younger.

Older, "OK, now it's your turn again."

Younger, "Uhhhh."

I played the "Slap" game with my siblings.  This was a game in the car where we would slap each other's exposed thighs and who ever screamed lost.  Mainly because this was on long car rides and the child screaming not only lost but got the car pulled over and well, you know what came next.

Sibling Sharing.

Older:  "There's one brownie left.  Do you want it?"  Proceeds to spit on it.

Younger, "Uh, no thanks."

Sibling exercise program

Younger goes and flicks (we called it plucks) the Older's head.  He then runs as fast as he can from mad chasing sibling until he is worn out and caught.  Wrestling then ensues.

Bathroom Rules:

When someone has to go to the bathroom, some like the World Championship 100 foot race ensues, whoever gets in their first, then locks and door and hangs out-for a very long time.

Sibling Boundaries

If sharing a room, the masking tape goes down the middle.  The younger has one side, the older then says, "If you cross into my territory then I'll have to beat you up/"

The younger looks around at how the room is divided, "But I have to cross your territory to get out?"

The older smiles.

Sibling Negotiation

Younger nursing a goose bump on his head.

Older: "You don't need to tell Mom, you are fine."

Younger, "But I'm picking rocks out of my head. Why did you push me down the hill on the tricycle."

Older, "It's your fault.  You didn't hold on.  I'm going to tell on you."

Younger, pauses.  "Oh OK, I won't tell.  I don't want to get into trouble."

Finally one of my favorites:

The older is finally enjoying a quiet moment on the couch, watching Spongebob, of course.

The younger come and sits next to him.  

Doesn't watch the TV, just stares at him.

I watch from the kitchen mesmerized.

The older ignores the younger, continues to watch the television.  The younger doesn't move.

The tension in the room increases.

The younger is frozen, like a statue, watching the older.

The older finally can't take it anymore and looks at his brother.

All the younger does is smile.

The older then proceeds to wrestle with him.

When I am asked later by the younger why his brother wrestled him, I reply, "You're really asking?

Oh, the joys of family.  Hopefully the therapy bills won't be too expensive for both them AND me.

Boys - what would you do?

My boys were getting into a fight in a public place, I watched as an adult grabbed the older one by the shirt and said something to him before pushing him away.  I am at a loss if I should have intervened or not.  Here's my take on it:


1.  Sometimes the younger one instigates it and no one sees that - he still has the cuteness factor on his side that makes everyone - including me - over look it.

2.  Yes, the older one is working on self control, and I did tell him to get his brother to do something that his brother DID NOT do.

3.  No, that does not condone him from bullying his brother but - do we use physical force to teach a lesson about physical force?

4.  Don't most brothers fight like that?  Or did I grow up in a different household?

I guess what I am working with here is whether or not I should have stepped in and said something or just let it play out the way I just did.  Here's why I let it play out.

1.  I tell the older one that he needs to learn control maybe someone else embarrassing him into it will make him think twice before his hormones are raging outbreaks.

2.  The younger one needs to see the consequences about his actions - his brother did tell him that I wanted them to do something that he specifically refused to do.  He understood that he brought this one on himself.

3.  I am sure the older one was showing off in front of a friend, and I am glad that this taught him that this doesn't end well.

In the end it had them both crying, which I think is a good thing, both learning lessons that I can tell them over and over again but until someone else says something it really doesn't resonate.   I watched them both apologize to each to each other and then take care of each other like brothers do.  They do love each other - they just annoy the hell out of each other.  

As I always say, "Be lucky that your brother loves you, because you annoy a stranger like that it is going to be much worse that you ever expected."

They learned that today.

Would you have let it play out or would you have stepped in, what do you think?