Sister Act

I alluded in the last post to the fact that my brother and sister had been to visit along with parents and I have to admit, we had a good time. I always express surprise at having a good time with my siblings because they are eleven and thirteen years younger than me. That makes my sister a junior in high school, let's just say that most days it is a stretch to find something in common with them. They grew up thinking of me as their mother. My mom worked the night shift most of my junior high and high school years so I picked them up from daycare off the school bus, cooked dinner, sometimes baths depending on how late my dad was getting home. I did nighttime feedings when my mom worked doubles, I took them with me to school events. This sucked. However, now that I am a parent I have been able to make peace with the knowledge that making ends meet was hard and my parents were doing the best they could.

However, now I am younger, more energetic and therefore, still posses the ability to be strict, unlike my older, more worn down parents. My parents exploit this by using my monthly visits to actually get my sibling to do their chores. This is counteracted by the guilt I felt about going away to college and missing out on a lot of their childhood. So we have this warped relationship where I am constantly riding them about school, work, friends, life choices, but I simultaneously act as an ATM to anything they think they can milk out of me. Chad is very tolerant of this. We went through a stage when Olivia turned one and still wasn't sleeping though the night and I was just trying get my brother through his last semester of English in high school that turned very ugly.

Anyway, I am not saying that we have a ton more in common with them these days, but we have a little. More importantly, they are turning into real, live adult-like people. They make funny jokes, they are real aunts and uncles to their niece, they never forget a birthday, and actually try hard to buy real gifts with the $6 they pool together between the two of them. Even though all I did was take them shopping around town on Saturday, I was impressed about how much they knew about me. It gave me hope that someday I will not just be their sister, I will be their friend.