Dear LPG,

I thought that this only happened in my family but, having talked about it with a few friends, I am learning that we are by no means unique. 

I have three brothers and when we were very young we were very close.   We were all born within five years of each other and, as under eight-year-olds we played together and sometimes argued but, with our parents there to restore peace and put limitations on our sibling rivalry and other arguments we were happy as the early years of life sort of meandered by.   Then school interrupts the proceedings and the closeness drifts away to the point that, during the next fifteen or so years we worked out what we were interested in doing and which friends were most important to each of us. 

All too soon we flew the nest to do things like get married and go our separate ways, and with children of our own and so many things to do that we cannot fit them into our days, the sibling aspect of our lives often gets lost.  There are often a few of those inter-sibling arguments that were never resolved to add to the equation and before you know it your sisters and brothers hardly get in touch at all. Although there will always be the siblings you get on with and the ones that you find it hard to chat with casually.  But with some instruction from our more gadget savvy children we are now keeping in contact using one of the growing number of group-chat apps that are available.  Getting together regularly for a short catch up without even having to leave home is really worth getting the hang of.  No matter how much geography separates you, it is the perfect way to get together and we plan to continue after the present pandemic restrictions are lifted.

Being stuck at home has been inconvenient, although necessary and to my mind one of the best things to come out of it was that we all had time to reconnect with a few of the people who used to be important to us, siblings included.

As we get older and with the passing of time those things that provoked our disagreements and arguments have a habit of appearing less important, and all the new electronic ways of communicating which allows you to get together virtually with the extra spare time we have had this spring, has given us brothers and sisters the opportunity to be closer again, start the healing process and close some of those old wounds.

GG, Sydenham