Siblings do become friends!

During a recent Smartsitting interview, one of our prospective sitters told a simple story about two sisters and their interactions as children. It reminded me so much of my sister and I (she’s 5 years younger). Growing up, everyone told me to be nice to my sister because one day, she’d be my best friend. I think I was really into eye-rolling back then, so that’s probably what I did. Shrugged it off and rolled my eyes. Well, fast forward to today: we’re roommates, we go to dinner together (lately she’s been cooking me dinner!), we talk about life together and sometimes we still bicker like all good siblings do.

The dynamic between older and younger siblings seems to be inherently consistent. When you’re young enough, you play together. You steal each others’ toys and make each other cry but you also love each other more than anything in the world. At a certain point though, older sibling gain independence and start to want different things… their own things, especially their own time and their own friends. For some reason, that equation just don’t factor in their younger siblings. In fact, I’m pretty sure (at least in my own experience) that it factors them OUT completely! The odd thing is that looking back, I don’t think there was ever a time where my younger sister didn’t want me around. I wonder if it’s like that for all siblings.

If I could go back in time and be nicer to my sister while we were growing up, I would do it. In all fairness though, I don’t think I had the capacity to recognize her feelings and if I did, I certainly didn’t have the capability of prioritizing them over my own. I’m happy I eventually learned those lessons, because we’re what the kids are calling “BFF4Evr.”