Short post today. I'm curious about families.
On a TV show I was watching recently, two kids were abducted. The older brother took care of his sister as well as he could, even including holding her tightly when she was scared. The little girl clung on to her brother any time she could. She trusted him and followed his directions to try to save them both.
Then there were the two grown up siblings in a sitcom who always share their troubles and advice.
I cannot imagine being that close to any of my [four] siblings. The closest I was to a sibling, she flat out told me one time - before I told a story about a night of partying - "my sister doesn't do that" so I didn't tell the story. We don't want to know all the good, bad, and ugly about each other. We love each other, but kind of at an arm's length, I guess.
Of course, there's the movie "The Good Son" and other examples of horrible siblings.
It seems in movies and TV, either siblings are devoted to each other or horrible/estranged. It seems off. Even when my little brother had no contact with us for eight years, after he and his two tiny daughters re-entered our lives, we all pitched in to help with the kids while he sorted out the logistics of moving, living, working. He truly seemed flummoxed when I responded, "Of course. You're family," to his thanks.
We come together and stand up for each other. We love each other. But other than jobs and maybe church stuff, I couldn't tell you how any of my siblings spend their time.
Are we weird? If you have siblings, are you close? Are you distant? Or do you relate to my perspective that "we love each other, but don't want to live up each other's butt"?
When I took a psychology class in teacher school, one of the topics was the different kinds of relationships that siblings have. There's a list. I don't think I still have the textbook, so let me see what I remember... There are close ones, distant ones, ones where a sibling acted as a parent to the others... It's late and I can't recall them all.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, to answer your question, you're not weird. Your family falls under one of the instances.
My brother and I had a rivalry when we were kids, but when we hit our 20s it mellowed and became distant. (I remember the professor saying something about how we could change that, but I was in my 40s, and I doubted it.)
That is very interested! Thank you for sharing that with me. Which sibling I feel closest to has varied over the years, but I don't think we'll grow closer at this point. With age, routines and habits set in.
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