April 10 is National Siblings Day! I am lucky enough to have a younger sister and am so happy to see my kiddos love and torment each other like we did. However, there are so many versions of families out there- sometimes you have friends that are more like siblings, siblings that are more like strangers and unfortunately sometimes a beloved sibling has gained their wings, but the memories of them live on in those who share their stories. Whether you have a sibling that was chosen for you or a sibling you chose, it’s safe to say life would be a lot less exciting without those memories we share with or of them. I thought it would be fun to share some stories of sibling love, rivalry, torment, inspiration and humor, from our readers (their own stories or stories about their kiddos) to celebrate the day! Readers full names are a secret to protect the guilty parties.
“I’m like an elephant, I remember everything… except for what I ate for lunch yesterday or where I am supposed to be going or where I put my keys. I could tell you all the details about the day my sister was born, 30 years ago, when I was almost 3. I remember wheeling her down the hallway and eating Chiclets gum in the hospital bed with my mom, a treat to help me warm up to having a new baby. But I am pretty sure the story my sister likes to tell the most is about how I killed her tooth.
My mom had a nursery school in our house growing up so we had a huge playroom with climbing structures and a slide. One night some older friends were babysitting us and the boys thought it would be fun to take the slide and make it into a bridge between the table and the window seat, so we could play 3 Billy Goats Gruff. All was fine, no one was hurt that night (even when they hid my baby sister in the cabinet above the refrigerator.)
Well, the next day, I thought it would be fun to repeat the game (don’t worry, not the hide and seek part.) I put up our “bridge” and my sister started crossing it. Just as I was about to ask who was crossing my bridge, the bridge slipped off the table and down crashed my sister- hitting her tooth down into the wooden slide. There was blood everywhere. It didn’t take long after that for her poor tooth to show that it was dead. She constantly liked to remind me whenever something didn’t go her way that I killed her tooth. And oh boy, when she had to have it pulled…. Let’s just say I never lived that one down!”
-Whitney (your publisher 😉 )
“One day we were out shopping and my son was asleep in his stroller. His sister (he was almost 2, she was about 4.5) reaches down and gently pats his leg and then says to me, "Mama, I don't want C to grow up. It will make me too sad. " I asked her why it would make her sad to have him grow up. She responded, "Because mama, when he grows up he will have a different family. He will get married and have babies. And that will mean he and I don't get to live with each other any more and we won't get to see each other every day." I explained to her that as long as he has a nice spouse and doesn’t live too far away they can see each other whenever they want.
-Whitney (your publisher 😉 )
“My kids sleep together, they adore each other and spend most of the time hugging and kissing each other. However, when they fight they toss all their chips in. One night my daughter comes out of their room, crying that he hit her then locked her out. My husband goes up to talk to him. Husband: "C, you can't hit your sister. If you hit her you will be sleeping alone."
C: "No, I go downstairs with mama."
H: "No, in bed alone. Are you going to stop hitting your sister?"
C: "NO!"
H: "Then you will be sleeping alone."
C: "NO! Sleep with M!"
H: "Then you need to stop hitting her."
C: "No!" giggle, giggle, giggle.
Then I hear something muffled. My husband calls my daughter in and I hear his little voice say, "M, love you. Favorite sister." All was right in the world... for 5 minutes until he hit or kicked her again.”
-Whitney (your publisher, again 😉 )
“I was really hard on one of my younger brothers as a kid. I had this idea of what he should be like and liked to remind him when he wasn’t doing things right. One day I got really mad that he kept leaving the bathroom sink full of toothpaste and spit all over the faucet. So I told him that he had to clean it. When he refused I decided I was going to force him to lick it clean as a lesson. Needless to say he put up a fight. It wasn’t until we were adults that he told me whenever I tried to “teach him a lesson” he would dip my toothbrush in the toilet after!”
-William
“My daughter A was three years old when we brought home her baby sister L. We knew there would be some adjustment, but after about a month had passed we were asking her, "Do you love, Mommy? " "Yes!" “Do you love Daddy?" "Yes!" “Do you love your sister?" "No...She's like Lava."
Later they became great pals. Here's a photo of A--crawling into the crib to "save her sister" after nap time. Mostly she'd just hog the blankets and pretend to be a baby animal.”
- Kjirsten
“Another story from my own childhood- Back story: My sister has severe cerebral palsy and is non-verbal. The only thing that gets her really excited is Disney movies, church music, and James Taylor. When she gets excited she waves her arms, claps and screams with joy. We love her and love that she's in our family.
Once when we were younger we were sitting in church I was sitting too close to her and as soon as her favorite hymn started "I have a family here on earth..."POW!!!! I got socked in the face and got a massive bloody nose. The next line in the hymn is, "They are so good to me..." We all laugh about it now. Ha!” -Kjirsten
“In 2003 I was to marry my college sweetheart Chris in April of that year. Chris was called for deployment to Afghanistan in January, so we decided to tie the knot before he left. We had 8 days to finish planning the wedding and the cake was one of those details that needed to be completed. My sister Lista lovingly volunteered to make the cake for our big day.Lista bought a book on cakes and made us a three layer tiered cake and even made sure that it was adorned in pink dogwood flowers to match the wedding color theme. It was beautiful, delicious and complete with fillings! The most amazing part of Lista volunteering to complete our cake is that she was battling breast cancer. Lista was in the full swing of her chemo treatments, but she never slowed down or complained.She just wanted to make our day very special.
As time passed Lista perfected her craft and made an array of beautiful cakes for all occasions. My favorite Lista creation was the cake she made of a whale for my baby shower. It matched the invitation and from her hard work I was inspired to learn her craft. Lista shared all her knowledge and love for cakes with me and I never knew how much I would treasure not only the lessons but the time I spent making cakes with her.
After a 5 year battle, Lista passed on January 17, 2008 from breast cancer. I wanted to make sure that her love for cakes continued on so others could enjoy the creations she taught me how to craft. That was how my business, Cake to Crumbs Bakery was born.”
-Whitnee
“When I was in high school my dad got really mad at me one day and threw away all of my CDS that had "garbage language". Of course I was devastated. A few hours later my little brother, Mike (I think he was around 10), comes to my room and whispers for me to follow him. We go to his room and he pulls a duffle bag out from under his bed and opens it. In the bag are all of my DMX CDS. This sweet, quiet, never done anything to get in trouble before, little boy had gone into the garbage, pulled all of my favorite CDS out of the cases and hidden them in his room. He left the cases behind in case my dad checked to make sure I hadn't retrieved them. He's been my hero ever since.”
- Kari
“Long after it is was acceptable for my mother to dress us alike, she made me and my two sisters (I’m the middle child) dress up for church in these awful matching dresses. They were velvet on top and the crinkly taffeta on the bottom. They were horrid to say the least, or at least they were to me when I was around 10 and my sisters 7 & 12. Around Christmas time there is a picture of us standing in front of the tree, we all look just miserable in these dresses. The thing I remember most is that it was so hot it was 70 degrees in December and we had to present the gifts at church that day- matching in those things!”
-Shannon
“I was riding in the car back to my father’s house when I saw a falling star... I wished for a little sister on that star. My stepmother was pregnant at the time and the doctors had told her she was having a boy. I already had a big brother and I really wanted a little sister… so I made that wish. On the day my “brother” was born the doctors were apologetic that the boy we had been expecting was actually a sister. (And then I had one more sister after that!)“
- Jessica
“When I was in the 8th grade, I let my cool, high school-aged sister who was really good at hair give me a trim. Little did I know she was mad at me for some reason that day. She cut my shoulder length, curly hair up to the bottoms of my earlobes. I looked like a curly headed cockatoo. If you remember, 8th grade was a very pivotal time in early adolescence. I actually cared what people thought of me at that time. I remember walking into school the morning after my haircut and my friend Shannon was like, "Oh! I like your hair!" and I was like, "Really?!" and she said, "I mean...I could tell you got it cut!" It took a few months to grow out that problem and I never let her touch it again! This is us, about 6 months after she butchered it, so it grew out a bit. I'm the one on the left. Can you imagine those huge bangs with hair that's about 3" shorter? I was gorgeous. Also, can we just talk about how much hairspray was collectively used among my mom, my sister and me in this photo?”
- Hilary
“Growing up with an older brother, life was full of mischief, lots of bickering and he’s/she’s looking at me, and last, but certainly not least fun! One memory that sticks out is the day my brother, Stephen, became my hero. One day we were riding bikes down a long dirt road and I flipped over my handle bars and he came to the rescue. My face was a bloody mess and he carried me home, applied bag balm to my face, since mom and dad were working. There have been many situations like these throughout our lives, but this is one that really sticks out!”
-Brittany
Happy Siblings Day!
