QotD: All in the Family

How do you think having siblings (or not having siblings) affects who you are as a person?

I can only say that I know it does, but I don't know how.  I was only an only child for four years of my life - not enough time to really know.  I was worried and happy and everything all at once when she called me to announce her pregnancy.  I could never understand some of her choices.  I've always wanted to support her in every way she needed.

I am the older sister.  I look out for her, as best I can.  Like a parent, there are times when it's hard to let go and let her make her own decisions.  Unlike a parent, I come to that conclusion sooner.  Or possibly just with more a more complete data set, since she confides in me a bit more than she confides in them.

We don't talk much.  When we do talk, it's easy and open, though I doubt she tells me everything.  I certainly don't tell her everything.

We wouldn't be friends if we weren't siblings, but woe betide the person who messes with one or the other.

Mom usually updates us on each other, and I know she speaks to Mom more often than I do.  However, I think that more a result of physical proximity than emotional closeness.  Either way, it's good to know I won't be much out of the loop for how little we talk.  However, since I can count on her to not tell Mom half of what's going on in certain situations, sometimes I have to follow a branch all the way to the root.  I don't really mind this.

There's two of us.  We're totally different, and we're way too similar.  My own grandmother tells us she never saw the family resemblance between the two of us until one day when she and I were both adults.  It took me even longer to see it, and then one day her angry frustrations were staring at me from the bathroom mirror.  It was so freaky; I completely lost whatever was bothering me.  And I've never been able to replicate that vision.

How does it affect me as a person?  Simplicity itself.  It's one of the many things that define me.