From what I hear, most mothers don’t like it when their children fight, and on the surface, I understand it.
However, pop culture and personal experience have taught me that the siblings with the strongest bonds get caught teasing and play-fighting quite often.
I mean, my earliest examples were thanks to my biological father and his brothers, coupled with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Bart, Lisa, and Maggie from “The Simpsons.”
And, granted, maybe having animated influences on how I grew up interacting with my siblings wasn’t what my mom wanted me to do, but it happened.
In fact, it’s still happening every now and again when the Millennial Shepard trio is under one roof for an extended period of time.
I think our record for not picking at each other or arguing might be two days at most?
I just remind mom that she raised three very strongly opinionated children, and we’re going to always clash at some point.
However, that’s only with each other!
We’ve got this unspoken rule or agreement between each other that we’ll let infighting run its course, but we close ranks when someone outside the family or approved friendships decides to throw stones at another sibling.
To be completely honest, I think mom might have fostered that rule in the early days to ensure we protected each other when the time came to it.
But, if I ask her, she brushes it off with her patented “I don’t remember that” excuse.
Apparently, if I also point out that I’m concerned for her memory after she says that, I’m told that we seem to be remembering things differently, and the subject is dropped.
Not to mention, we also saw the same behavior in our uncles and other friends in our age group who had siblings of their own.
I’m not sure if all of those familial relationships have turned out as consistently as ours in the end.
And I get it, sibling relationships are complicated!
As the eldest, I took my role as protector to heart and will still go ten toes down against anyone who comes at my family sideways.
However, now that we’re all in our 30s, physical altercations aren’t required so much anymore since we’re all hours apart and living independently.
In fact, our sibling interactions have translated to keeping track of each other in a texting group and occasionally buying something based on each other’s special interests and gifting it.
Said gifts are also sometimes completely random and can range from being a joke item to something we know the other would love.
Cue me getting a random picture text from my little brother about a concert T-shirt he bought for me from a band I liked late Saturday night.
He even went so far as to take a video clip of the band – “Bloodywood” – while introducing the concert’s overall headlining act, “Babymetal”, for me.
I guess he remembered my lamenting from his May announcement about going to said concert and wishing I could attend with him.
But, it’s one of those little things that reinforces he cares and earns him a hug next time he’s home – as long as he remembers to bring my shirt with him.
