Brothers

The worst thing about having four brothers is that whenever we played Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, I had to be April.  Unless my sister was being April, then I had to be Slimer from Ghost Busters.  I spent a lot of time sitting in dark rooms waiting for them to rescue me from Shredder.  It was awful.

That's the only bad thing.  I can't think of anything else.  We had our little disagreements here and there, but I can't think of a time -- ever in the history of EVER-- that I wasn't happy to have so many brothers.

My family follows a pattern:  girl, boy, boy, girl, boy, boy, girl.  I'm the girl in the middle, sandwiched between four boys.  And they really are like the Ninja Turtles.  There's Leonardo, the oldest and most adept at leadership, followed by Raphael, the passionate one.  One little brother is characteristically like Donatello-- intelligent, patient, and calm.  The other is a dead-ringer for Michelangelo-- the energetic one who doesn't take things too seriously.

Brothers are important, especially good brothers.  So, sisters, be good to your brothers.  Brothers, be good to your sisters.  Brothers and sisters need each other.  That's all there is to it.

I seem to gravitate toward list making, so here's a list of reasons why brothers are important to their sisters:

• Brothers teach their sisters to be level-headed.
• I can think of so many instances growing up when I'd be going bat-crap-crazy over some silly, non-consequential thing.  It'd go down like, "Oh my gosh, brother!  I can't believe that my favorite sweatshirt is missing!  Missing?!  What am I going to do?!  My life is OVER!"...  Usually, they wouldn't even have to say anything.  Especially the younger ones.  They'd just look at me and shrug, so as to say, "You're overreacting.  Go over there until you calm down."  If it weren't for my brothers, I'd probably still be that girl who loses it over a lost sweatshirt.
• Brothers teach their sisters how girls deserve to be treated.
•  We didn't have very many rules in my house growing up, but we certainly had to follow the rules we did have.  One of the important ones was the necessity of treating women with respect.  And my brothers did.  Some girls feel like they need to prance around in a tiara, with their nose stuck in the air, in order to be treated like a princess.  I never needed to do that, because I was treated like a princess.  My brothers respected me.  We were equal:  My brothers might even say that their sisters had it easier than they did... which is probably true.  I never had to worry about being inferior.  I'd be willing to bet that most well-adjusted, confident women have brothers (or brother figures) who helped them to grow that way.
• Besides equality, they taught me what to expect in relationships-- whether it be friendships or more.  Any boy who wouldn't treat me like my brothers did was, simply put, not a boyfriend candidate.  I always tend to judge guys based on my brothers too.  Sorry, guys:  If you don't have the common sense of Leonardo, the zeal of Raphael, the tranquility of Donatello, and the enthusiasm for life of Michelangelo, you just won't measure up.
• Brothers teach their sisters how guys deserve to be treated.
• Sometimes my brothers would go on dates with girls who I didn't like very much.  These girls would act innocent, but I knew their ways.  I'm a girl too, after all.  I know the games that we know how to play, and I hated it when girls would mess with my brothers.  I learned, at a fairly young age, that girls should not play mind games with the men in their lives.  I vowed never to be like those girls who didn't treat my brothers well.  Even today, even when a guy is particularly irritating, I try to remember that he's probably someone's brother.  I need to treat him the same way that I'd hope my brothers would be treated.
• Brothers teach their sisters how to present themselves to the world.
• Imagine this:  I walk down the stairs wearing something that I thought was cute.  Maybe a little bit on the immodest side, but so cute!  A brother looks at me and says, "Really?  You sure you wanna wear that?"  (That's brother talk for, "You look sleazy.  You shouldn't go out wearing that.")  Boys and girls think differently about things.  It's biological.  I always appreciated the perspective they gave me whenever I ventured outside the house.  No doubt that our world would be a much better place if there were more caring brothers who would look at their sisters and say, "Really?  You sure you wanna wear that?"
• Brothers teach their sisters how to stick up for themselves
• I'm not kidding.  Leonardo taught me how to verbally lash out at people if they try to take advantage of me.  Raphael taught me how to break someone's arm or shin or neck if they try to grab me.  Donatello and Michelangelo taught me how to avoid situations where either of those skills would need to be put to use.  Instead, they taught me about the finer points of waging psychological warfare on humanity in general.  Because of my brothers, I have peace of mind.  I know that I can do this independent, living on my own thing.  I can stand on my own two feet.  Thanks to them.
• Brothers introduce their sisters to "cool" things.
• My brothers are my best friends.  (My sisters too, but their post will be later.)  Honestly.  Almost all of my interests stem from one of my brothers introducing it to me.  It makes me a little... OK, a lot... nerdy, but I don't care.  I like LEGOS, and Star Wars, and Big Bang Theory, and Dr. Who, and videogames, and football, and exploding things, and protein shakes, and comic books, and building things, and trying to lift things that are probably too heavy for me.  If I think something is funny or worthwhile, chances are I learned about it from one of my brothers.
• Brothers get married and add to the family.
• This is important.  Brothers grow up.  If your brothers are anything like mine, they've married (or will marry) a wife who I like better than them.  The only difference between my sisters-in-law and my biological sisters is just that, the biology.  Thank goodness I was nice enough to my brothers that I get to be friends with their spouses!  Don't even get me started on their kids-- the nieces and nephews.  A perfect day is a day when I get to be surrounded by all of my nieces and nephews.  It's a day when I get to teach them all of the games that I used to play with my brothers.

In a sense, I believe that we're all brothers and sisters.  Not everyone is as blessed (and that is the word for it) to have four brothers like mine.  However, that shouldn't stop anyone from trying to be a guiding, protective, caring, and patient brother or sister to those around them.  Brothers need good sisters.  Sisters need good brothers.  End of story.