12 Things Close Siblings Let Slide

When you were a kid, you and your siblings may have bickered a lot (or, you know, constantly, if you were like my sisters and me). But now that you’re all adults, there are certain things that your close siblings let slide — things that you can do around each other that you might not do around other people, because you know that your brother or sister won’t judge you for them.

When I say that siblings “let things slide,” I don’t mean that they just let things go as if they didn’t happen. If you’re family is anything like mine, you can bet that if you do something silly or embarrassing, you will be teased about it for approximately, oh, the next ten years, if not the rest of your life. But though your siblings might tease you without mercy, you also know that they’ll accept you and continue to support you, no matter what you do (and usually they know to check their mockery before it goes to far). After all, your siblings have seen the very best of you and the very worst of you. They know all of the qualities that make you awesome and the ones you’re not so proud of. They may not always approve of the things you do, and they’re not afraid to call you out when you need it, but you know that at the end of the day, they’re going to let certain things go. Luckily, you’re willing to do the same for them. Read on for just a few of the things that a close sibling will let slide:

1. Borrowing clothes.

One of the best aspects of having two sisters who are close to me in age (you know, beyond the friendship, unconditional support, yadda yadda) is the borrowing of kickass clothing. (It also helps that my sisters are way more fashionable than me). If you’re really close to your siblings, they will trust you to borrow clothes without wrecking them. Of course, to get a pass on borrowing clothes from your siblings, you have to be respectful of their stuff — taking things without permission or returning items in bad shape is a surefire way to get your sib to put a lock on the closet.

2. Serious venting.

When you’re pissed about something or someone, you usually try to rein it in in front of other people, if only to avoid trampling them with your rage. But when you’re with a close sibling, you feel able to vent to your heart’s content. Your brother or sister listens to you enumerate all the ways that Person X is the Absolute Worst, and lets you go on until you finally run out of steam. They let it slide, even if you’re particular complaint is petty, because they know that you’ll let them vent to you when it’s their turn for a rage-fest.

3. Stealing CDs.

When you were teenagers, your siblings kindly declined to comment when you “borrowed” something from their music collections — especially when the CD you took was one you felt embarrassed about wanting to listen to (ahem, Backstreet 4Ever, but I’ll never admit it). (Also, I know I’m dating myself with this one because, these days, most teens probably don’t have CDs to steal. How do today’s siblings steal each other’s music? I’m honestly asking.)

4. Unfortunate teenaged sartorial decisions.

Sure, your sibling still teases you about some of the horrendous stuff you wore in high school, but he or she knows not to go too far, if only because you’ve got your own ammo — memories of their terrible clothes that they would rather not recall.

5. Being… less that pleasant sometimes.

Everyone is a jerk once in a while, and, if you’re a generally nice human, you usually try to mask that when you’re with other people. But with your siblings, you feel a little freer to be honest about your emotions — even when your emotions kind of make you awful to be around. That doesn’t mean that you have a license to be short tempered and snappish with your siblings, but when you just can’t help being a harpy, you know your siblings will forgive you.

6. Making terrible food.

One of the first times I ever made dinner for my older sister, I was in college, and I was … not an experienced cook, to say the least. I made pasta, and when it was done, I somehow managed not to strain it properly, so that when I added the sauce, the meal was essentially soggy pasta in tomato water. Did she laugh at me? Yes, of course. But she also went with it, and helped me make something edible.

7. Bad relationship decisions.

Your siblings might give you lots of advice about relationships, but, when you inevitably make a bad decision about your love life (as we all have done), they don’t say “I told you so.” They help you pick yourself up and move on.

8. Times when you are super boring.

Sometimes you really don’t want to do anything but lie on your couch in X-Men pajamas and drink wine. The nice thing about siblings is that you don’t have to worry about keeping them entertained or making sure they’re not bored. If you want to veg out, they’ll be vegging right along with you.

9. When you have a total meltdown.

I cannot even remember how many times I’ve burst into tears in front of my sisters. Usually it happens when there is something really stressful happening in my life. I’ll think I’m fine, and then I’ll sit down with them and start crying ten minutes later. I think it’s because some part of my subconscious knows that I’m in a safe place, and it’s OK to let everything out, ugly crying and all. With close siblings, you can lose it, and, once you get it everything of your system, they move on with you, without judgment.

10. Doing something really, really stupid.

Your siblings may tease you mercilessly about most things, but they know to lay off you when you’ve done something truly, painfully embarrassing. They figure you’ve tortured yourself enough — they don’t need to add onto it.

11. Things you did as a child.

You and your sibling may have locked horns a lot when you were growing up, and you may have done and said things then that seem petty and straight-up mean now that you're an adult. Your siblings, who probably said and did their own share of mean stuff back in the day, let it go, because they recognize that most of it came from immaturity and insecurity.

12. Two words: Dance parties.

Your siblings don’t simply let impromptu dance parties slide. They get in on those parties and dance like crazy. And they don’t make fun of your terrible dancing (well, too much) because their dancing isn’t exactly coordinated either.

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