Brothering and Sistering. This is how you do it.

April 11th was national Sibling day.
This would have escaped my notice entirely if not for my sister and Facebook.

My sister's status on that day read:

"In honor of National Sibling Day I'd like to send out a big salute to the worlds best brother and sister, Chris Nunn and Jennifer Nunn. You're not just around when it's convenient, but when it's a real pain in the ass too. I love you."

So, naturally I got a bit teary. You can never hear too much that people love you. Especially people who have known you your whole life. Parents are one thing, they kind of have to love you. They made you.


Siblings are a WHOLE different thing. I mean you kinda have a history with them so you love em...but you aint gotta like em. In fact I can tell you stories of what I like to call horror siblings. Brothering and Sistering gone so horribly wrong it would make your hair curl.


But those jerks aren't my brother and sister. Thank God for that.

So in honor of my brother and sister, here's an outline of how brothering and sistering should go. These are based on my brother and sister and there's plenty of people who could learn a thing or two from them.


Brothering.

My brother is the show-up-ingest dude I know.
I got a problem, I call my brother. He hangs windows and paints walls and hauls furniture. He will gladly speak to anyone who disrespects  our sister or I.
He's the first guy to show up and the last guy to leave.
When our sister was in ICU he cut her grass and did her gardens so she didn't have to worry and her husband didn't have to think about it. We paced the halls together for two days that week.

I take my 12 year old nephew with me to his house to show him how men should act. He accepts my boy even if he's not our blood. He talks to him, and plays with him and praises him. My nephew's dad is a great guy, but you can never have too many good examples.

This is how brothering should go. Brothers are supposed to be your example of how a man should treat you. Their job is to go first into the world to make sure everybody knows you have backup.

They're supposed to eyeball the guy you are dating and tell you from a man perspective if he's a loser or not.


Sistering

My sister is the got-your-back-ingest girl I know. You sure as hell don't want to be overheard talking trash about me near my sister. No sir. That's trouble.
She's the first one to tell me if I'm being a jerk and the first one to tell anybody else who suggests it where they can go.

She'd never let me leave the house looking bad.
She shops with me to make sure I look good.

When Mom is away we split "Dad duty". We make sure there is food in the fridge and the house is reasonably clean.

I take her with me and my ex sister in law when we go out. My ex sister in law doesn't have a sister and that's a damned shame. So I share mine with her.

She reminds me that I'm worthy of what ever I want in this life. She gets upset if I don't believe her.

This is how sistering should go. Sisters are supposed to prop you up when you're down. They're supposed to make sure you and everybody else remembers that you're a rock star.

Their job is to tell you if your friends are really frienemies.


This is the barest outline of Brothering and Sistering. There is a whole depth of support and acceptance that I cannot put into words but am eternally grateful for. I feel a lot of empathy for people who don't have siblings, or have siblings who don't know how to do the job.

If you are one such person, feel free to share this blog with your siblings. We'll show 'em how it's supposed to be done.



That's us....WAY back in the day. No, my sister didn't let me leave the house in that shirt.