Who Really Needs A Sister Anyway?

    Something very sad happened the other day. No, nobody died. At least not anyone that we personally knew. Nothing bad per se, happened. It was just one small fleeting moment that occurred and it really just stung my heart.

  As you may know, when I took on the role of The Charm, I also took on the role of "step-mom". Sadly, though due to circumstances that  I will not get into at this moment though no fault of ours, we have hardly seen my step daughter in the past almost five years. I could probably count on both hands the number of times we've gotten to see her. Maybe even on just one hand. Since my son has been born, he is now three years old, we have only seen her three times. So its no wonder that he doesn't really know who she is. Right?

   But that makes me sad. The other day as I was dusting off the things in our living room I picked up the frame that contains the only picture of all four of us. Usually its just three of us able to be in the pictures due to someone having to be the one taking the picture. This occasion we just happened to have our family friend Shaney there and she took a beautiful photo of all of us. Anyway, so I'm dusting off this frame and when I put it back down Aiden comes over and says, "Baby Aiden, and Mommy, and Daddy, and friend."  I was just like.."Oh, well yeah, that's Emmalee, she's your half-sister." I wanted to be like, "No! She's so much more than just a friend. She's blood. Maybe not full blood, but she's still family and that's the most important thing ever!" But you can't just throw all that onto a toddler. Its not like he would understand anyway.

    Then, sometimes I wonder if its even fruitful to keep telling him about his seemingly imaginary sister. Is out of sight out of mind really better? Just bring it up if it happens to come up? I mean I should know how to handle this situation, after all I have a half sister that is much older than me. I never really got to see her either. I love her. I admire her. Sometimes I wish I could be more like her. I'm very proud of her. But I'm not close to her. We talk every once in a blue moon. Sometimes we will go out of our way and make it a point to go and visit with her, which we LOVE doing if money allows. But she hasn't ever done that to see me. So really, how strong is the bond between half siblings? And is it really important to stress it during childhood? I mean honestly, I'm closer to some of my friends than I am to my sister. And I'm okay with that. But will my son be? Will my step-daughter be? Although, she already has another little half brother that she gets to be around all the time so maybe it isn't even an issue for her. Maybe I'm over-thinking all of it. Where was this chapter in all those parenting books? I must have skipped it somehow.