7 advantages of having siblings

1. You learn to share early on

When you were kids, how many times did you fight over the last cookie in the package? Or did they hide with their favorite toy just so they wouldn’t have to lend it? It’s part of the preservation instinct to want to keep what’s yours. But it’s also part of any relationship to learn to share. Of course, if you still live with your siblings, the piece of pave left in the fridge still generates some sense of ownership… But we prefer to think that you get better every day!

2. The youngest is proud of you

You’d come home from school and he’d eat the leftovers in your lunchbox. After you’ve grown up, he may even deny it, but he takes your opinions seriously and has you as a reference in various matters. Sometimes as a reference of what not to do, but who always gets it right? Furthermore, if the older brother is deified by the younger one, he can teach by writing along crooked lines!

3. The eldest protects you

Whether it’s because of a stomach ache or a friend’s offense, you know you have someone to turn to – or, at least, someone to feel sorry for you… Ok, in certain cases, you have someone who will just laugh in your face, but that eases things up, go!

4. Do you have more than one wardrobe?

Do you have a sister to call your own? So, there’s a party bag for when that last-minute wedding comes along, a pair of pants she’s tired of but looks great on you… With any luck, you might even have an expert in cat eyeliner or hairstyles. Or in a brigadeiro in a pan, or in bread on the plate, whatever – at something, it must be good!

5. They will listen to you (even against their will)

When you were a teenager, when you came home from the party dying to tell someone the news, they were there (sometimes, sleeping, but what can you do… certain news can’t wait!). Today, the WhatsApp group for brothers alone is one of the most popular on your cell phone. Some days he pumps too much and you silence him, but bomb!

6. You will inherit all the trickery

You have to be flexible to deal with different situations in childhood, whether it’s not to take the blame for something, or to get rid of your face in front of your parents. Developing so many strategies should raise human IQ by at least three points! Okay, that’s just a vague hope for someone who has siblings – it’s not scientifically proven.

7. You share the situations you go through with your parents

When you were little, you would get together to complain about being punished or come up with a plan to hide your school grades. Now, they have each other to share the parenting with when they get older and a brotherly shoulder to lean on in difficult times. Perhaps this is, after all, the greatest joy of having siblings: in the natural order of life, parents leave before children, and when they are about to go, you won’t be alone in saying goodbye.