Sisters

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

When I was little, I didn’t always get along with my sisters.  I am the oldest of 7, but was closest with the other 3 oldest who happened to all be girls.  The next oldest is 17 months younger than me, the one after her is 3.5 years younger than me, and the next is almost 7 years younger than me.  Many times during my childhood, I shared a room with one of them, we shared toys, we shared friends, we played together, and we fought with each other.  I even babysat the youngest of the oldest 4.  There were so many times when I was little that I wished I was an only child.  The only children that I knew got to go on fancy vacations, got the coolest toys, and got lots of attention from their parents.  Oh man was I jealous of them.
I can remember getting into serious fights with my sisters where we would scratch, pinch, punch, and hit each other until we were crying.  My mom’s favorite punishment was to make us hold hands and walk around the neighborhood block.  Oh geeze, that was like a fate worse than death.  As soon as we would get beyond our mom’s sight we would immediately release hands and start fighting again.  Those were the good old days. 
Even though we did fight a lot, we managed to have quite a bit of fun together.  We used to play "school" where we would all be teachers to our millions of stuffed animals and dolls.  We would play “ballet class” where I would be the teacher and choreograph dance recitals for us to put on.  We even put on a whole news broadcast that was taped by my Dad to tell my Uncle and Aunt that my mom was pregnant with her 5th child (who happened to be a boy!).  I was the anchor and my sisters were reporters.  We still watch this home movie when we get together and crack up laughing, it was that funny.
When we started growing up, we grew apart for a while.  When I went away to college and then started dating my now husband, I didn’t have much time for my sisters.  They were busy with their activities and getting into college and I was busy working and trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life.  Then my life slowed down a little once I graduated from school and started working, but my sisters were just starting college so we didn’t see or talk to each other much.  For a while, after my Dad passed away, we started getting closer, but even that didn’t last long.  Someone would be mad at someone else for something.  One of us was usually in a fight and not speaking to another.  This was the cycle of things for some time.   
This past weekend I was able to spend some quality time with both of the next oldest siblings (the youngest of the oldest 4 girls is away in the Peace Corps right now).  I found that I genuinely had a nice time with them.  We each have different points of view, but so much history and therefore lots to talk about.  We have great conversations that range from serious topics, to gross/TMI topics, to funny topics.  They are both very understanding of me and my pregnancy issues and are constantly checking in on me to see how I am doing.  Even though one of my sisters has no idea about fertility charting, she still asks me about my temperature.  J  Neither of them is ready for children yet, so all weekend we joked about them giving me their babies if they were to get knocked up by accident.  You might laugh, but I am so serious! 
My sisters are incredibly lovely and amazing women.  They are strong, courageous, driven, focused, successful, and beautiful.  I am so proud of each of them and their many accomplishments.  Even though I never really appreciated it before, I am so thankful to my Mom for having us all.  She always told us that one day we would really appreciate having each other.  I believe that I now fully understand what she was talking about.  I love you girls.

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3 Responses to “Sisters”

  1. This is a nice post. Anytime I see a movie about a group of adult sisters I get so jealous! Funny how you were jealous of the only children growing up. I am not an only child but it feels that way most days.

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  2. It's so great you guys get on now, me and my younger sister had exactly the same thing, even though I too was jealous of the only children, I have to admit there isn't really a substitute for someone who grew up in the same family. I think it's amazing when I go to her house and it's so much like our house was growing up!

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  3. What a lovely post! I was raised as an only child and dreamed of and longed for a family like yours. To be one of seven would have been heaven to me! The grass is always greener, isn't it? I recently did learn I have a half-sister I never knew about (I was conceived from a sperm donor) and we are working on developing a relationship, but I know it will never be what you have. I hope you continue to appreciate the gift you've been given!

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