Sibling Combat Training for Life.

‘I, who have no sisters or brothers, look with some degree of innocent envy on those who may be said to be born to friends.’
—James Boswell

          My brothers and I always seemed to get along when we were growing up.     Sure, we had our moments—but our childhood seems to be nothing like the combative early years that my 5 kids have had and the shenanigans that they get up too.  On the other hand my husband’s childhood stories of combat with his sibling’s scares me, but these days you can’t part them with a butter knife even when they are not around.  So I blame my husband for teaching my children loyalty and to be each other’s staunches defender in the face of enemy attacks, real and imagined.

            This idea about siblings came to when I was congratulating my 14 year old on making it to 14 years old.  He wanted me to reminisce with him about his childhood and as I started telling him stories I realized that I should maybe be congratulating his siblings for surviving his 14 years. It all started when he was just 18 months old and his little sister was about 2 days old,  I put her in the middle of my king size bed  and surrounded her with pillows.  Big brother  snuck  into the bedroom,  slowly reached over and grabbed the blanket and pulled it gently towards him with the baby on it and then flung it as hard as he could hurtling his sis off the bed so that she landed behind the door in the bedroom.   When I rushed into the room to see why the baby was wailing, I squashed the baby behind the door.  She was fine, I wasn’t.  That baby girl never left my sight for the next 10 weeks. 

           When he was two and he attended a gorgeous little private school in the inner city of Sydney, Australia, he drove his preschool teachers to the brink of insanity.  Everyday I dropped him off at school, he then went inside, took off his shoes and scaled the standard size preschool fence and went to visit his brother in his classroom (it was all in the same location).  The brother had one of the most drop dead gorgeous teachers that no eight year old boys should have and the 2 year old thought that he to should also partake in this “booty”.  The eight year old of course hated the embarrassing and humiliating interactions between his “cute“  brother and teacher.  “Don’t let him come up there Mum”   he would wail to me in the afternoons when I came to pick them up.

          This 14 year old when he was around 4, and we lived in the country in California (I knew I had to get the kids on to a farm) strapped his brother who was 1 into the family van and took him for a joy ride down the road.  He announced this trip to me by coming into the bathroom and saying “Mumma don’t be scared but look out the window and see where I parked the car and don’t worry Mumma I put the baby’s seatbelt on” As I looked out the window I saw the van parked hard up against a huge redwood tree with the baby in the back.  Lucky we didn’t have any neighbors as they would have gotten to see a half naked woman running to the van to check on the 1 year old.

            One of the things my husband has preached over and over to our kids throughout their many hours of arguing, noogies and headlocks of each other is this: “your friends may come and go, but you we will have each other as brothers and sister for life!”  This was never more evident one unsuspecting day with my now 14 year old at a park in Queensland.  A neighborhood bully decided that my 14 year old was being a little too smug and cocky and wanted to knock him down a peg or two.  Unfortunately for him, he didn’t realize that if you messed with one, you got them all.  After pinning my 14 year old to the ground, my nine year old ( who weighs in at a might 35 pounds) was very quick to start his kickfest on both the bully and my 14 year old  son whose head was apparently in the way of his foot.    Sister had her face and hands all over the bullies face screaming “GET OFF MY EFFING BROTHER! GET OFF MY EFFING BROTHER! “  Of course there were friends involved too because if you are initiated into the Bautista clan you get to partake in all the beatings, ahhh I meant fun.  Nether the less the bully got the beating of his life time and shortly moved back to New Zealand, so my kids tell me.

 Whether it’s a rite of passage this business between siblings I say yes, but I can undoubtedly tell you this: I don’t know of one person (especially boys/men) who has told me that there was NEVER any fighting between them and a sibling (or siblings). It just seems to be a fact of life. What matters is how we, as the parents, handle it.  By always keeping open communication between everyone. By making family more important than the almighty dollar (my kids don’t always like this).   There seems to be no topic of conversation that is inappropriate for my kids to have with my husband and I, we really talk about everything.  And by constantly drilling our children to take care of each other, teaches them the values of taking care of mankind.  So I know the 14 year old is probably not done with his shenanigans and there will be more stories, I look forward to them all.

A child just arrived the other day............

Young people now devote an average of 7 hours, 38 minutes to daily media use, or about 53 hours a week.  The media is now your kid's best friend, parent, coach and if they can get away with it their teacher.


Lets face it folks the only way to have a great relationship with your kids, is well have human connection with them.  Get out there and shake it up a bit.  Playing catch is a great way to get the communication going.  Throw that ball hard too and pretty soon everyone is awake and in present time.  No one likes a baseball in the face.
If you have boys, wrestling in the living room is a must for all that physical contact and human connection. My husband recently started running with our teenage daughter, they both love it.  It's not up to me to think of the activities to do with your kids, that's your create......get on with it.  It will be something you never regret.

Welcome to Kids are from Uranus.

G'day everyone,

Hubbie and I have been going for these amazing walks in the morning to the top of  a lake.  On the way up to the lake we talk about all the great stories and adventures that we have had with our kids. Well this is our showcase of those stories.  Having five kids is an adventure in itself, add on to that they never have really gone to school, traveled quite extensively and they are all various ages going on 35.  So for the most part they are waiting for the world to catch up to them, quite a challenging feat!   

All aboard!

While our stories are hilarious to read they also inspire a strong sense of  confidence and self esteem.  They are abundant in valuable life lessons that will inspire you as a parent.  Many of the lessons are from us being clueless and making bad choices.  

So hop aboard this train and enjoy the ride,  it stops along the way, so you can get off at anytime.  The journey is just beginning............ALL ABOARD!

Yours in adventure,

Gypsy Mumma and Dad