Siblings are a mixed bag. Brothers and sisters both have redeeming qualities. Unfortunately, a lot of us never get to experience both. Did you know, only 28% of Americans have siblings of both genders.* I only have brothers, but thanks to social media and my generation's nasty habit of oversharing, I can see how different it would be to have sisters. And now, for the low, low price of clicking the ads to the right of this text, so can you!
First of all, social media affection among siblings takes many forms. I think we've all been guilty of stalking a guy we're into because we just can't tell if that's his girlfriend or his sister. That's pretty much the single defining activity of my Friday nights. Sisters communicate via social media with a sweetness that is physically sickening. Any given birthday post sister to sister is likely to read "Happy Birthday to my beautiful sister who inspires me every day. Thank you for being my best friend.". Heart emoji, dancing rabbits emoji, hashtag love you. Meanwhile, if I were crafting a birthday post for one of my brothers, it would sound slightly different. "Glad your rash cleared up. Remember, you can be tried as an adult now. Hbd.".
We also have some differences when it comes to food. I will often hear of sisters cooking together or see sisters sharing food. Sisters split meals at restaurants and will tell each other things like "You HAVE to try this, it's amazing! Pumpkin spice mac and cheese! Delish!". With my brothers, it's eat or be eaten. Nothing too crazy we just literally hide food from each other. I'm 22 years old and I'm not ashamed to tell you that I will hide candy, cookies and Chex Mix from my brothers. I've been known to play "see how may Famous Amos I can fit into my mouth at once" in order to eat them all myself. Luckily, we've evolved to avoid conflict. We used to get into physical altercations over brown sugar cinnamon Pop-Tarts but now we all like different flavors. As long as our mother buys the same amount of chocolate fudge, chocolate chip cookie dough and hot fudge sundae, nobody gets hurt.
If I had a sister, I think I might have watched Gossip Girl. I can't explain it, it's just something I feel very strongly about. Sisters become best friends by watching Real Housewives together, women bond through reality television. I don't care who you are, if you will watch all 13 seasons of Bad Girls Club with me you are a maid of honor contender. All my brothers ever want to watch is the NBA rewind channel. Every time I ask to watch Little Women: LA, they say they would rather watch Clippers and Celtics game from 1849.
I have no definitive proof of this (much like everything else I post on this blog) but it stands to reason that it is easier to play with siblings that share your chromosomal composition when it comes to Xs and Ys. I know sisters who grew up with an entire village of Polly Pockets. Sisters who could have 83 hour Mary-Kate and Ashley movie marathons with their collection. Sisters who had Disney princess costumes for dress up and all the stick-on earrings and body glitter a girl could ever hope for. What did I get growing up? I have exactly 2 Disney princess movies while my brothers own every Batman and X-Men movie ever made. Instead of playing dress up together, my brothers and I played beat the crap out of each other. But to be honest, the black eyes often looked better than the play makeup I tried in vain to apply.
Growing up I always thought that having a sister was like having a sleepover every night. After living with girls, I know that to be a fact. Some might think it's hard to share a bathroom with another girl, but I would rather share a bathroom with 7 other girls (which I did for 2 years) than 1 boy any day. When getting ready together you can blast Taylor Swift, sharing sink space and makeup. With brothers, there's no sharing. If one of my brothers is in our bathroom, it becomes a men's room. If I'm in the bathroom, it becomes my sacred temple for a quick shower or lengthy spa treatment depending on the day. Sometimes I'm reading a magazine and my bath takes all of 10 minutes, other times I'm reading Rainbow Rowell and I'm in there for the better part of Titanic.
There have to be some parts of life that are just easier with brothers. For instance, I've never had the problem of a sister constantly stealing my clothes. I have worn my oldest brother's clothes on occasion. I'll borrow his t-shirts or basketball jerseys and he would never deign lower himself to wear his sister's clothes, so it's a win-win for me, or as my parents call it, "inconsiderate".
So I guess we all just make do with what we get. I think that having younger brothers has helped mold me into the bossy, demanding (somewhat boyish) girl I am today. Brother or sister, we figure that whatever specimen our parents bring home from the hospital is between them and God. Then we do our best to push the boundaries of normal human interaction until someone moves out.
May the odds be ever in your favor.
*I 100% made that up.
