Unpopular opinion: National Siblings’ Day deserves more recognition.
I mean actual recognition, outside of the standard “happy siblings day loser” text or the cute photo posted to your Instagram story. If you grew up with siblings, then there’s a good chance that they were your best friends growing up. When I was younger, I did everything together with my older brother and younger sister. I was the middle child (middle children unite!) and as a result, had twice the fun. We would all go biking around our block, play freeze tag or hide and seek, and build entire worlds with Legos.
And then obviously, the fun faded a bit as we got older and stressed. My sister and I explore the mall now instead of the park, and my brother and I play Minecraft instead of Legos. My brother and I balance the stress of classes and work on our plates, and my sister is hurrying to finish high school. We don’t see each other as much. There’s been no love lost- life just moves on.
Here is where I would like to mention Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. If you have been fortunate enough to celebrate and if you have a good relationship with them, then you might know some of the grand rewards we bestow upon our parents in May and June: flowers, breakfast in bed, going out for dinner, etc. We put in the time and effort to celebrate our parents and show our appreciation for them, regardless of how busy we are in our lives. We know that our time with them is limited, and that we should take advantage of the time we have (and yes, you shouldn’t only show love for your parents on Mother’s/Father’s Day, but it’s still nice that we have a holiday for them, you know?).
Why don’t we do the same for our siblings? It almost feels like as we get older, we take them for granted. The friends I’ve spoken to about this express the same sentiment: they don’t celebrate their siblings like that because they don’t think to.
I urge you to think about celebrating your siblings this year. If they live far away, do more than just the standard text message or Instagram post. Call them and catch up with them to talk about their day. Spill tea. Watch a movie together. Tell them yeah, they’re cool or whatever, but they’re still a loser and a rat.
Make a collage of all the old, embarrassing photos you have of you guys together and send it. If they don’t live far away, maybe take a trip to the mall yourselves, or just chill inside and play video games.
If you have a good relationship with your siblings, recognize it this year, and show them some love.