Siblings with benefits
A little gratitude for my siblings as I settle into motherhood.
Last week, a few of my siblings dropped in during the day. As usual, they fought over my four-month old daughter while I whizzed around the house getting bits and pieces done, but at one point I stopped and snapped the picture above. Not until later did I look at that photo properly and realise just how lucky I am to have so many siblings - and also how lucky I am that they live only five minutes away.
I’ll be honest: I wasn’t overly concerned about finding a place super close to the family after getting married. I knew I’d see them often whatever the distance, and I was too excited about moving in with my husband to give it much thought. But now with baby Emma in tow, I couldn’t be more grateful that we ended up living so close.
Not only is the baby blessed to be surrounded by so much love, but the help is in constant supply when my husband is at work. Need to do a big shop? I swing by my parents’ place and borrow a sibling - there’s always someone available to push the pram while I push the trolley. Got an article to write and the baby’s having a needy day? Someone will turn up and entertain her while I get my work done. And although they are all younger than me, they mother me with their insistence on things like shouting me lunch or doing things around the house. When people ask if I’m experiencing cabin fever after shifting from fulltime work to being at home with the baby, I can honestly say that’s one problem I haven’t had!
I think what I’m trying to say is that I’m appreciating my siblings in a new way. I always loved the fact that they meant company, “built-in” friends for life, a larger wardrobe... But now I realise that they are also the people who will be around as we raise our kids, and the ones who will love our kids as much as we do. Many hands make light work – or at least, they make the job more fun!
Karl Stephan's discussion of the limits to human longevity in today's issue of MercatorNet led me to newspaper accounts of Jeanne Calment, a French woman who died in 1997 at the age of 122 -- the oldest person on record.
Madame Calment was quite a character. She was born before the telephone, lived her whole life in the Mediterranean city of Arles, and died at the birth of the internet. As a young girl, she met Vincent van Gogh during his two-year stay in Arles in 1888 and 1889. She was unimpressed by the famous artist. "Very ugly," she said.
Madame Calment outlived her husband (who died in 1942 after eating spoiled preserved cherries), her daughter, her grandson -- and her landlord. When she was 90, this unlucky gentleman purchased her flat on a contingency contract, agreeing to pay her 2.500 francs a month until she died. She outlived him, but not before he had paid her twice what the flat was worth. ''In life, one sometimes makes bad deals,'' was her comment.
Madame Calment quit cycling at 100 and smoking at 116. She had a sardonic wit. ''Until next year, perhaps,'' a visitor told her, to which she retorted: ''I don't see why not! You don't look so bad to me.'' Toward the end of her long life, she began to look her age. But she maintained otherwise to visitors, telling them: ''I've never had but one wrinkle, and I'm sitting on it.''
Michael Cook
Editor
MERCATORNET
| As medicine improves, how long can we expect to live? By Karl D. Stephan We seem to have a built-in expiration date of about 115 years Read the full article |  |
| All the boxes have been ticked, but single career women are still not happy By Julia Vidmar Today's young women are over-achievers and the young men are under-achievers. Read the full article |  |
| Siblings with benefits By Tamara El-Rahi A little gratitude for my siblings as I settle into motherhood. Read the full article |  |
| Let’s cut Donald Trump some slack By Michael Cook Yes, he's lewd and crude. But Clinton's policies will further sexualise America's moral ecology Read the full article |  |
| Eugenics: could screening for Down Syndrome bring us full-circle? By Peter Saunders Cost-benefit analysis of the lives of disabled people could lead to a dark future Read the full article |  |
| Japan’s cure for the heartache of childlessness By Marcus Roberts A robot. Read the full article |
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MercatorNet: Siblings with benefits
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