11 Things We Love About Sisters: #sisterlove

If you're lucky enough to have sisters -- you may have asked yourself what's different between a sister and a girlfriend? A lot. After sharing more than five decades with my three sisters I consider myself an expert. Here are 11 things that are uniquely special about sisters.
This post was published on the now-closed HuffPost Contributor platform. Contributors control their own work and posted freely to our site. If you need to flag this entry as abusive, send us an email.

This article was originally published on Better After 50.

If you're lucky enough to have sisters -- you may have asked yourself what's different between a sister and a girlfriend? A lot. After sharing more than five decades with my three sisters I consider myself an expert.

This past weekend one of my sisters came to visit for four days and we were thrown back into our childhood bubble. We had no interference from husbands or kids -- it was just us. I was hosting this visit and had purposely cleared all plans so we could just "flow" from what-ever to where-ever.

Here are 11 things that I was reminded of during this visit that are uniquely special about sisters:
  1. Sisters Can Be Perfect Playmates: My sister and I love to do a lot of the same stuff because we were raised like a wolf pack with our dad as the alpha wolf -- competitive tennis matches, make way for duckling style bike rides, group downhill and x-country skiing treks and hiking trips plus plenty of boating. My sister arrived with her bicycle, tennis racquet, yoga and walking clothe -- we used them all!
  2. No Food Stress: There is no standing on ceremony when it comes to food and no guilt when you haven't made it to the grocery store in preparation of the visit. Neither of us need to plan meals ahead of time. We can whip up a meal from what's in the pantry and the veggie bin. One night, my sister pulled together a fantastic pasta and pesto dish with roasted cauliflower and a cucumber and tomato salad -- it was simply gourmet.
  3. Free flow schedules: We didn't care what time we ate dinner or when we played tennis -- or even how long we napped. We were in sync. House projects like rearranging furniture and organizing cabinets are considered fun activities vs chores. We spent hours hanging little lights on my porch -- climbing up the ladder and discussing "the look" and both of us had a blast. "Sister Decorators" -- does that sound like the next reality TV show?
  4. Shopping with confidence: There is no holding back on opinions about whether or not to make the purchase. No purchase was made without approval from both of us. You never know, it could be the next outfit you may want to borrow.
  5. Mia closet es Su closet: Boundaries around what's mine dissolve with sisters. Because my sister and I have almost the same shoe size, look good in the same colors and have similar taste -- the door to the closet never closes -- for better or for worse.
  6. Never bored talking about the same thing -- our mom, our dad our two sisters and our relatives. Commiserating about our childhood is still riveting. No matter how many times we tell the same stories -- they are still fun.
  7. When we argue about stuff we can rebound. But, we are more mindful of hurting the other's feelings than we were in the past because we know how precious this sisterhood is. Part of growing older is we are kinder. We've learned not to take one another for granted.
  8. We actually listen to stories about each other's kids as though they are our own because in fact they almost are -- they are slightly removed from our own.
  9. We get to laugh hysterically about our parent's best and worst traits without getting offended because it's OUR parents so it's allowed.
  10. Getting under the covers together is not weird -- we are sisters and tucking under the same blanket to watch a movie or sleeping in the same bed is normal.
  11. Honesty: Sisters actually tell you that the outfit you are wearing looks bad and that it's time to dump the t-shirt or sweater and get a new one. We are not insulted by this.
I could go on and on with this. If you've got some more #sisterlove thoughts you want to share please comment below.

If you have sisters -- Hope you will share this blog with them and spread the #sisterlove.

Earlier on Huff/Post50:

Geography Counts, So Stay Local

7 Ways To Make Friends Post 50

Popular in the Community

Close

What's Hot