The Three Phases

              This past week I've been doing quite a bit of research on this topic, and I realized the best information I had was all around me my entire life. I'm about to explain sibling relationships in three very simple phases that anyone with siblings has gone through. (This is all from my personal experience as a babysitter, middle child, and from watching my friends interact with their siblings. This is not scientifically proven.)

• The first phase is the Adoration phase, there are many different pieces to this phase but it is also the shortest phase.

1. The Newborn- Right after the new child has arrived, all their cuteness is like a magnetic pull that is very hard to resist.
2. The Helper- This is when the older child/ren want to anything and everything they can to help with their new little family member.
3. The Protector- This is the stage where the child/ren are making sure nothing harms the little one. (more common in boys with baby sisters, at least that's what I have noticed)

              These pieces normally go all together and last up until the newborn is a toddler.

• The next phase is the Best and Worst of Friends phase, this one is pretty self explanatory.

1. After the child/ren grow up some more and are better with interacting with one another, there will be many (and I mean many) on and off days.
2. You'll notice that a lot of the time the shifts can last from a minute or so to a day or two. This is definitely normal, don't worry if the shifts change several times in a day.
3. Also when one of the kids is in trouble for something they did on their own (i.e.: getting into something they knew they shouldn't be in.) and the child is in trouble, the other sibling/s often want to make the child in trouble feel better. They'll talk them into behaving or just try to make them smile.

This is one of the most rewarding and annoying stages of childhood.

 

• This last phase is the one your children/siblings will be in the rest of your lives. It is the Friendly phase.

1. There is still going to be fights and stupidity, but it should be much more spaced out, and the kids will bond over their bad behavior and secrets.
2. This is the stage where you realize how much your family means to you even if you don't want to or they embarrass you.
3. Normally the kids stop treating each other like babies and more like equals which allows them to bond easier.

 

This is the most difficult stage, but also the easiest.

 

 

          Today I am still in the Best and Worst of Friends stage with my baby brother, but hopefully soon, as he starts to mature it will be the same stage as the rest of my brothers. (The Friendly Phase) I know way too much about my middle brother, and not enough about my older brothers. But I'm happy with my relationships with my family. I hope you are as well, and I hope that this can give you some type of understanding of sibling relationships.

 

Thanks for reading!

Until Next Time

~LateRayne



The Question Blog

              How about I start this blog with a simple question? How many of you REALLY know your family members? Now I'm not talking about aunts and uncles from Timbuktu. I'm asking about your immediate family, such as parents and siblings. Take a minute and go through this short list and see how many of these you know about each family member.

• Favorite color
• Favorite food
• Favorite pastime
• Plans for the future

              Four very simple things to know, but how many do you actually know right off the bat? As I get older I realize that knowing these things about my parents doesn't seem as important to me as it once was. I remember when I was about six or seven I always asked my parents all about themselves because is wanted to do things that interested them. Now as I watch my nine-year old brother do the same thing I did I notice how obnoxious it must have been. Today I still care about what my brothers' favorites and future plans, but mostly just so I can relate to them in some way.

             Being the only girl causes me to try extra hard to find anything and everything I cant to relate to my family. But that's just me. Many people either don't care about their family members' favorites, or know way too much about them. Personally I favor those who know too much, but that's a conversation for a later date.

 Thanks for reading!

Until Next Time

 ~LateRayne

About This Blog

This Blog

                         Alright, lets start with the basics. I will be writing about my family as well as others. There WILL be statistics, family stories, and random things I deem important and or relevant to my blog.

                        Now about me. My name is Lakota. No I am not Native American and yes I do know that there is a Lakota Indian tribe. I have five brothers. My oldest brother I don't know because he is 30 something and lives in Germany. He is my step-brother. Benjamin is my 26 year old step-brother as well. My 19 year old Brother Robert was named after my father, the 14 year old Tytan is my closest friend. My last brother is named Ian, he is 9 years old and also a step-brother. I do have a sister bus she passed away before I was born. She would be a year older than I am now. My father I no longer see, and my mother got remarried two years ago to my step-father D.

                       Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love my family. We normally get along great. but I know that in every family there is always some type of conflict that arises sometime. Not everything is just peaches and cream. In my family we have lots of conflicts, and currently I am in the middle of a huge conflict with my D. The point of my whole blog is to let you in on some of the little things that make families go round, to share some stories that maybe someone can relate to, and to help not only you (the reader) but also myself realize why we as people do what we do in family situations. Okay so there is some Psychology involved but hey, that's what I want to write about.

                       I'm going to share with you the short story of how I decided to blog about my family. First of all I just recently got a much larger family, and second, there are soooooo many things that you can include in family discussions its not even funny. I'm pretty sure sometime I'm going to blog about the awful music my brothers prefer, or about by best friend Dakota who happens to practically be my sister. Plus family is something I'm pretty sure everyone has some form of feeling toward.

Anyway that's all for this blog.

Until Next Time

~LateRayne