Mama in the City

Back in the day when I was considered a tween, way before the term tween even meant anything, I had an older sister who I despised. She was 4 years old than me and had more freedoms and more liberties than I could ever imagine. She went to co-ed parties and stayed out late and bought her own Cover Girl cosmetics and dabbed herself with Sea Breeze and Noxzema. I was mad that she was able to do so many more cool things than me, I was jealous that she was able to do more and see more. This resulted in major sibling rivalry and many fights and battles between us.

Our history of sibling rivalry was peppered with the incident of ' The Hairbrush' . An incident where I would steal and hide her hairbrush which resulted in a bit of physical aggression between us. There were also hormonal tears and even a bleeding wound. The incident of 'The Hairbrush' is still talked about by our parents all these years later, we now laugh at our old selves and giggle about how much dislike we had for each other back in the day.

I have two sisters and I'm in the middle with a 7 year span between the oldest and the youngest sister. It was my oldest sister that I always had the beef with and the constant tug of war of feelings between jealousy and dislike. Being the middle sister I would take refuge in the companionship of my younger sister until she allied with my older sister and made me the outcast, which would happen from time to time. There was no real safe place being that middle sister and I lived up to the reputation that middle children have.

My parents were distraught with our constant squabbling and our overall lack of sisterly love; they would make threats and punishments and even offer rewards in attempt to make us get along. Our relationship was really a no go until we both moved out of the family house and grew up, it was then that we had a true admiration and respect for each other. We had to make that transition before we had that desire to have a sisterly relationship where you look forward to hanging out with each other. A relationship where you make an actual effort to be friends and enjoy spending time together.

We have that relationship now and it deepened more with the birth of our children, we grew closer as women and sisters. I learned that sisterhood is a bond that goes deep and is unbreakable even with past blood battles like 'The Hairbrush'. Now one of my favourite things is watching my sister mother my son, and being able to spend time loving on her children. In some ways, her children seem like part of me and I rank them right up there with my own flesh and blood..... because they are. I love seeing their silly smiles and hearing them call out to me in their loud little voices, 'Auntie! Auntie!'.

I am so lucky to have two sisters and I am so happy to be able to share motherhood with my older sister. Watching our children play together is such a big highlight.