Only Child Sibling Rivalry
I carried my niece on my shoulders, bouncing her up and down as we walked along the sidewalk in the fading light. The little angel and my other niece raced ahead, then back, and I saw something new in my daughter's eyes.
Jealousy.
She clung to my waist, asking to be lifted, all of her seven years. I shooed her away, clinging to the little waist above my head, making sure I wouldn't drop the two-year-old who squealed above me.
When we got back to the house, the little angel crawled under the deck and sulked.
I put down my two-year-old niece, keeping one eye on her as she raced about the yard, bouncing off grass blades and seeking, as two-year-olds are wont to do, anything dangerous that might exist in the world.
"What's the matter, Baby Duck?" I asked, as I peeked under the deck.
She buried her face in her knees.
And I knew. It kind of made me laugh, but not really. But sort of. Especially since it's not really my problem. I don't have any other kids. I knew it was all temporary. And my heart went out, a little, to those who have birthed more than one child.
I'm spoiled, you see. Sure, I have to play with her a lot more than my friends with more than one child have to don Zhu Zhu gear, but I really never have to deal with this.
At last Beloved appeared on the scene to chase our nieces and I crawled under the deck to assess the little angel's degree of sulk.
"You know you're still the Baby Duck," I said.
"I know," she said, to her knees.
"What are you doing? You don't even have to share me, ever! You should be happy to play with your cousins."
"I'm mad at you."
I sighed, picked a piece of grass from between the rocks.
"Okay," I said. "If that's the way you feel."
She looked up.
"But you could be my tickle monster assistant if you like."
And so it went, me the tickle monster, her my minion, chasing down nieces for tickling.
And then we came home, and it went back to the way it's always been, just the three of us rotating in our little solar system. We don't know how to be any other way, really. It's just us, it's always been just us. And I wonder how other families do it -- I see the pictures on Facebook, I hear about how lovely it is to have siblings love on each other, I see it with my nieces and nephews, and my heart sometimes wishes the little angel had a sibling to love on her.
But it's fleeting, because really I think we're sort of stuck in our ways. We like our family just the way it is.
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