Happy Sister Day!

I'm a  few days late. Sister Day was on Sunday (always the first Sunday in August). But last year I was a month late, so... I am making progress. I actually wished my sister Lori a Happy Sister Day yesterday. I told my nieces about Sister Day and that it was a day to be thankful for your sister. They looked at me like I was crazy... like why would they ever be thankful that they have each other. They will appreciate each other more when they are older I guess.

If you want to know how awesome I think my sisters are, read my post from last year here.

Recently, BYU news shared an article about Sisters. It is pretty interesting actually. I have copied below. Take a look!

Sisters give siblings better mental health, study shows

New research also shows loving siblings promote good deeds more than loving parents

Something about having a sister – even a little sister – makes 10- to 14-year-olds a bit less likely to feel down in the dumps.
That’s one of several intriguing findings from a new study on the impact siblings have on one another. Brigham Young University professor Laura Padilla-Walker is the lead author on the research, which also sorts out the influence of siblings and the influence of parents within families.
“Even after you account for parents’ influence, siblings do matter in unique ways,” said Padilla-Walker, who teaches in BYU’s School of Family Life. “They give kids something that parents don’t.”
Padilla-Walker’s research stems from BYU’s Flourishing Families Project and will appear in the August issue of the Journal of Family Psychology. The study included 395 families with more than one child, at least one of whom was an adolescent between 10 and 14 years old. The researchers gathered a wealth of information about each family’s dynamic, then followed up one year later. Statistical analyses showed that having a sister protected adolescents from feeling lonely, unloved, guilty, self-conscious and fearful. It didn’t matter whether the sister was younger or older, or how far apart the siblings were agewise.
Brothers mattered, too. The study found that having a loving sibling of either gender promoted good deeds, such as helping a neighbor or watching out for other kids at school. In fact, loving siblings fostered charitable attitudes more than loving parents did. The relationship between sibling affection and good deeds was twice as strong as that between parenting and good deeds.
“For parents of younger kids, the message is to encourage sibling affection,” said Padilla-Walker. “Once they get to adolescence, it’s going to be a big protective factor.”
Many parents justifiably worry about the seemingly endless fighting between siblings. The study found hostility was indeed associated with greater risk of delinquency. Yet Padilla-Walker also sees a silver lining in the data: The fights give children a chance to learn how to make up and to regain control of their emotions, skills that come in handy down the road.
“An absence of affection seems to be a bigger problem than high levels of conflict,” Padilla-Walker said.

To my sisters- Thank you, AND your welcome! :o) 

Seriously... my sisters are amazing. I love them VERY much and feel blessed to have them in my life. They all have taught and continue to teach me so much. The time we get to spend with each other these days is very little, but I love every minute of it. I'm so glad we got to do a sister trip this year, I hope that we can make that a tradition. :o)

Dear Big Sisters,

Thank you for being loving, kind, talented, beautiful, spiritual, good examples, smart, responsible, funny, understanding, forgiving, good listeners, hospitable, caring, helpful, encouraging, sympathetic, and just down right AMAZING! I love you more than I have the words to say. Thanks for all you do for me.

Love,
Your Little Sister