Brothers and Sisters {& The Differences Between the Two}

Summer feels like suddenly going camping with all your co-workers. When there’s not much on the schedule, everyone gets real. The kids become each other’s best (and worst) playmates.

These brothers and sisters suddenly have all day for sword fighting, baking, giggling, Lego-building, and daydreaming together. Like other moms, I watch my kids playing and fighting and wonder what this means for their future. Are the girls’ long talks the seeds of our daughters life-long friendship? Are the boys’ screaming fights a precursor to Thanksgiving dinners twenty years from now?

For now, the boys love to DO stuff together. They build, wrestle, construct and destruct all the time. No time for relationship building or long talks–there are iPhone games to conquer! race tracks to construct! Star Wars scenes to make! Already, they relate to each other like miniature men.

Will they grow up to be men who build together? Are these long, summer days forming a lifelong friendship between the two of them? Will these brothers buy each other beer and travel across the country together? Will they use their Lego skills to build decks in each others’ backyards? And will they always yell and punch, like they do now?

Conflict resolution might be the biggest difference between boys and girls. Yesterday the girls had an afternoon-long “discussion” about the tone of voice Catie used with Elisabeth. Just like women, they are Sicilian in their grudges.

But the girls also bond deeply. They invent secret sister handshakes and are each other’s most ferocious defenders in the cruel world.

Maybe they will always be each other’s best friends, talking and talking and talking together. Or maybe it will be a rare moment when we’re all together and it feel awkward.

While I’m trying not to pile all these expectations on our kids, it’s hard not to. Maybe these little men will grow up to trust each other other deeply. Maybe the girls will shop, sob, and laugh together for the rest of their lives.

God will tell the story He’s going to tell. And that story will be totally different than my deepest fears or wildest hopes.

But for today, we will celebrate these brothers, sisters, and the scary, exciting differences between the two.