From when you were little to as you grow older you learn countless life lessons when having older brothers. They make you tough, but will always be there to protect you.
Competition.
Attempting every sport that they play. Going out to play catch. Playing football in the backyard. Voting touch but playing tackle because that’s what they wanted to do. Basketball in the driveway. Losing every game of pig, along with every game of one on one. Learning how to spin a basketball on your finger. Being the goalie when playing soccer while your brother practices shooting. All throughout life you challenge yourself to be as good as them.
Video games.
If you ever wanted to hangout with them, you had to find an interest in video games. One of the best games was NCAA football. Having them get mad when you were doing well was the best. They would be looking up every trick play, while you would just push random buttons. Halo. Having them play this all of the time so you joined in. Sometimes even getting to wear the headset, which as a younger sister was pretty cool. Learning to play video games helps when hanging out with guys, because you learned that if you wanted to play you’d have to sit down and be quiet.
Always losing in physical fights.
No matter how hard you tried, they would always win. The worst was when they would double team you. One would grab a hold of your arms, the other the legs. Having brothers with bad aim, you end up slamming into the bottom of the couch. Some days there would be “fist fights.” By fist fights we mean us going in swinging and them grabbing our arms and trapping us so we couldn’t move. They're excuse as to why they beat you up? "We're preparing you for if you ever get attacked."
Constant remarks.
This will give you thick skin. If someone tries to hurt you with words, or tries to make a remark… jokes on them because your brother has already beat them to the punch. Some days brothers don’t know when to stop with their remarks. From when you’re sitting with your brother watching a wedding commercial, having him say, “wow you’re lucky you’ll never have to worry about that” to your appearance or even weight jokes. Every remark thrown your way you learn to laugh off, or to throw them right back. You truly learn how not to take every single comment from people to heart.
Showing less emotions.
You learn to only cry for the matters that truly hurt you. From playing competitively, to getting over all of their remarks, you learn that crying doesn’t get you anywhere. Most of the time when brothers see you crying they try to make you laugh or take you to do something to get your mind off it. And if they’re feeling extra nice they might even buy you food or ice cream.
Hand-me-downs.
Loving hand-me-downs. Girls with sisters get cute clothes to wear to parties or school. Us with older brothers? We get big sweatshirts, t-shirts, and occasionally sweatpants. Half of the time you never have enough room for them all, but for some reason you never say no.
Boys have less drama.
In your house with brothers there’s no drama. If anyone is mad, you either say it, fight about it or get over it. You spend years comparing your friendship to theirs. No matter how hard you try, you can almost never avoid the drama with girls. You can lose a friend after a year, while they still have their best friends from kindergarten. If you’re lucky when you’re in a fight with your friends, your brothers are always right there to let you in on their plans with friends once in awhile.
Being the baby of the family.
This is the biggest perk. You always attempted to play this card when getting into trouble. Being a daddy’s girl definitely helps too. Anytime we’d all get sent into our rooms, you always call out to dad, asking if you could come out. Of course he’d say yes, because then we’d sit and watch football together. Then the boys would ask and he’d say no. Maybe it wasn’t fair, but hey, we deserved some extra love for what they put us through.
Always being over protected.
When you’re young this can be an annoying aspect of having older brothers. Once you start growing up, you see that they only want what is best for you. From being at work (the same work place as your brother), talking to guys and he comes over out of nowhere to see what they wanted. If you ever get a text or a Snapchat from a guy and either of them see it, you better believe you’re getting constantly questioned. Or their name will be loudly announced for every family member to hear. You learn that if you ever tell them about a guy or ever consider bringing a guy home to meet them, he must be pretty special.These life lessons will take you far in life. And you will have your brothers to thank for learning them.
