Operation Snickerdoodle
[The following article, an edited excerpt from a previous post, was published in the May 2012 issue of Maidens of the Master, an e-magazine edited by a young friend from our church. Email me to subscribe.]
Perhaps you’ve been encouraged by this issue to invest more in your siblings. You envision spending Quality Time together, laughing merrily together as you picnic on cookies and lemonade, and sketch butterflies. (You can substitute your own fantasy.) It has been a boring, slow afternoon, but now you are inspired by the happy prospect.
You ask your brother, “Do you want to go to the park with me?”—with a bright upward inflection.
The answering exhalation all but blows the house down.
“That’s too much work, and I’m ti-i-i-i-red.”
No matter—that is what big families are for. You approach your sister. After you cough loudly a few times, she emerges from behind her novel.
“Do you want to go to the park with me?”
“Oh, not now. I’ve got a bad headache.”
You lasso the little brother who is sprinting past. “Do you want to go to the park with me?”
“No! I’m going to ask Mama if I can go on the computer!”—(to play inane video games. That is my favorite answer.)
By this time you hate the idea of spending time with these people. Fine. I’ll go play by myself!
Now, I am blessed with six fun-loving siblings who like to spend lots of time together; but there are bored, slow, tired, head-achey afternoons where no one wants to do anything. This is when I must employ the tricks of the older-sister-trade, which my siblings fondly call my “diabolical schemes.” Actually, their intention is quite friendly.
I go into the kitchen and bake cookies. Someone wanders in, taking delighted whiffs of the cinnamon air.
“Hurray! Snickerdoodles! Can I have some?”
"I am going to take them to the park with some lemonade. Do you want to go with me? We can take our bikes."
"Oh, good. I'll take my sketchbook." (Sometimes it might be a hesitant "A-a-a-a-lri-i-i-ght" with a hungry look at the cooling cookies. But once they start getting ready, the enthusiasm strikes them!)
Now we have two people excited about an outing. It is rather contagious. Soon, there is a caravan of bikes on the way to the park. Trust me.—I have never organized a park outing (or tea party, or read-aloud…) and found myself lacking eager participants! We have a wonderful time enjoying the cookies, the blooms, and perhaps a lively game of kick-ball.
All this to say: don’t wait for your siblings to be in the mood for Quality Time. You can do a lot to create that mood by making the prospect easy and inviting. As older sisters, we will often find ourselves in the role of facilitators; but soon you might find your siblings picking up your tricks, and initiating the fun times that make the sibling relationship such a delight!
Friday, May 11, 2012