May 11. Day 131. Sisterly love

There are plenty of times my son bemoans the fact that he is an only child. He talks about what he has missed out on because he doesn't have siblings. Of course he is right.  I mean if you don't have siblings who is going to tell you how annoying you are, how big your pimple is, how fat you are, how stupid your smile is, how lame you are at climbing a tree and so on and so on. So it was over Mother's Day lunch at my sister Marie's where my delightful nieces Scarlett and Cleo gave each other full and frank character assessments and discussed just how good the next three days would be because Cleo's school camp meant they wouldn't have to put up with each other. Yeah, I'm sure the three days will be heaven (especially for their parents who will have a temporary reprieve from the squabbling). But as one of four I know it's not going too far out on a limb to say that after a bit the silence will be deafening. I mean, what good is three days peace and quiet if you haven't got anyone to give stick to about just how golden the silence was. And anyway, if I didn't have a big sister I would have been in charge of Mother's Day catering instead of being able to sit back and enjoy the lunch. While she and Peter cooked I got to hang around the back yard with the girls. And by the way Marie you have a stupid smile ... (and beautiful and talented daughters - they take after their aunt)