As a mother of an only child, there is one thing that I miss completely. Sibling rivalry. And when I say miss it, I mean I don't have to hear "Moooooom, she's touching me!" from the backseat. But I also don't get the entertainment value.
Take the two brothers at a Texas Rangers game who have gone viral this week thanks to one's sign offering his piggy bank up in exchange for whatever ballplayer could hit a line drive ... directly into his brother's noggin. Ouch! Literally! Figuratively! Just ouch!!
That's the stuff that makes sibling rivalry grand. That's the stuff, I confess, I miss. It's so good, you can't really make it up.
Go ahead, roll your eyes at the one and done, doesn't have to deal with squabbling kids mom. But I get that, in the moment, sibling rivalry is the pits. Take it from a sister. I mean that in the literal sense, not the "I've got all my sistahs with me" sense. As in a person whose mother spawned another child, therefore ending forever her days as an only child, sole eater of the cookies and play-wither (wither-er?) of the Matchbox cars. I was none too pleased when I asked for a sister and out popped this creature who liked to sit on my head and fart.
That's what makes sibling rivalry hilarious if you step back and look at it with fresh eyes. That sign in the Rangers' ballpark? It was mean. Horribly mean. Sadistically cruel.
And, um, wickedly funny. Because these were little kids who don't think through what they do and are still sorting out their emotions. They spend so much time with one another that they get really, really angry, and they don't have the same cooling off period that they do when they leave their friends at school. We want our little darlings to love each other, but we're expecting an awful lot from two people who spend every waking minute together and very often have way too much in common (hello, same genes?). I love my brother. But sometimes, I just didn't like him very much.
Do you appreciate your kids' sibling rivalry for the hilarity it brings to your family? What did you think of this sign?
Image via MLB