The first time my mother left me alone with my little brother, I locked him in the bathroom.
She was gone under 10 minutes on a brief drive to town hall to pay the taxes and thought that leaving me, then 8, alone with my then 1-year-old brother would be OK. After about five minutes of trying to stop him from getting into things, however, I decided the bathroom was the most logical place for him to be. (I wasn’t too coldhearted: I put some toys in there with him.) When my mother returned, I was given a stern talking to, relieved of my “temporary” babysitting duties for the foreseeable future.
In this edition of Valley Parents, we explore the complexities of sibling relationships.
“For many of us, relationships with our siblings are some of the most important during our childhoods and even throughout our lives,” Susan Pullen, a pediatric behavioral health clinician at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, told Valley Parents correspondent Kelly Burch.
In addition to experts, Burch spoke with parents who have children of many different ages and those who adopted children to grow their families. She also talked with parents about raising five children or more and others who chose to have only one child.
“I think only children are fantastic, and try not to trouble myself too much with what other people think about my child or my parenting — it’s hard enough as it is,” Arianne Arnold, of Woodstock, mom to 4-year-old Eden, told Burch.
In a personal essay, Burch also wrote about her own family’s decision about how many kids they would have.
Families come in all shapes and sizes. Some sibling relationships can be difficult to navigate, while others happen more naturally.
As for me, after years of growing pains, my little brother became one of my very best friends.
Liz Sauchelli can be reached at esauchelli@vnews.com or 603-727-3221.
