When I was a kid I dreamed of one day having a large family with lots of kids, kind of like the movie Cheaper By The Dozen. I hoped they’d be close and look out for one another. Well I didn’t end up with enough kids to field a sports team, but I do have four. My oldest is a 12 year old girl, then a 10 year old boy, next an 8 year old girl, and finally my 4 year old baby. My older two are thick as thieves. My son worships his oldest sister and many times they leave out my other daughter. She’s emotional, head strong, stubborn and a challenge. She can be hard to get along with, so many times they don’t want to include her. I have pictures of my older son and younger daughter from when they were little, playing together and getting along, but times have changed. They are now like oil and water; they seem to constantly fight over anything and everything. I worry that when she needs her big brother to stand up for her, he won’t. I worry that he’d do anything for his older sister but not for his other sister. I try to remember when or why things changed so dramatically between them and I can’t. I’ve even threatened to force them to room together again and ban them to a separate table to have their meals together just so they develop a bond, like in the movie The Parent Trap. At times they all squabble so much that I just need to separate them. Now the boys share a room upstairs and the girls share a room downstairs. But when the weekend comes or school vacation or summer vacation, they all jump at the opportunity to bunk together. My son drags his twin sized mattress down a flight of stairs to his sisters’ room, as does my 4-year old. This is after my younger daughter has begged them to sleep in her room. My son spent an entire summer sleeping on his sisters’ bedroom floor. I really think they’d room together indefinitely, if they could. And at night when they are all asleep together and I poke my head in the room to check on them, all I can do is smile a big smile from ear to ear. I’m overjoyed at seeing them choosing to be together and be in each other’s company. It’s like they have their own sibling club when they close that door at night. What I’ve come to realize is that no matter how much they fight and complain about each other, there’s love there, even though they wouldn’t admit it. And it makes me not worry so much about whether they’ll be there for each other. I can feel more confident in knowing that when I’m not around, they’ll be there for each other.
-Ricky
Massachusetts
#siblinglove #lovestories #spreadlove @maravilla_love
All Love Letters’ are pristine, posted as they were received. Please forgive any spelling and grammar issues, since the writing was done in the throes of love, and sometimes love doesn’t care about commas or misplaced letters.
