I love listening to my kids play together – when they’re not fighting, that is. Because they do fight, mostly over who gets a particular Lego minifigure. I have days where I want to gather up every minifigure in the house and hide them all where I keep my secret chocolate stash. But then there are the cute moments when the kids are playing happily and being kind to one another, and sharing and taking turns, and I think, “Awwwwwww.”
Because I can’t remember playing nicely with my two younger brothers – I am pretty sure we were trying to kill each other or plotting ways to try to kill each other for most of our childhood together. They’re great guys now and I love them both heaps, but as children, they were like a very small gang bent on annoying the heck out of me.
Now we’re all grown up, we get along much better. It probably has something to do with the fact we live in different countries and only see one another in person occasionally. They can’t steal my Barbies and say “I know you are but what am I” over and over and OVER because they have jobs and families and responsibilities, and when we Skype, we’re all conscious of the little ears listening to our banter. Because who wants to hear your own kids repeating the same rude name you’ve just called your adult sibling?
Actually, as children, my brothers and I made up words which took the place of rude words. So we could call each other things which our mother would never have tolerated (and still wouldn’t, I imagine) and no one else was any the wiser. We still use those made-up words in conversation with each other, although with a fondness now that was reasonably minimal when we were kids.
So for some siblings, like mine, the “Awwwwwww” moments take their time coming – decades, even. I hope my own children realise that, once they can see that no amount of minifigures in the world can make up for the love of a sibling.
Have a great week
Katherine Granich
