"The most important person in my kid's world. And it's not me."

And I’m fine with it.

There is someone in the world that my three-year-old thinks is more fun than me.

Someone my five-year-old would rather play with than his Dad.

Someone my seven-year-old wakes up just to tell extremely-important-kid-stuff to. Stuff grown-ups just wouldn’t get (and frankly aren’t really interested in).

Two people in fact.

Their siblings.

My three kids can’t get enough of each other.

Oh sure they fight and bicker and pinch and push. They cry over he-took-my-toy and she-touched-my-dinner and why-don’t-I-ever-get-to-go-first?

But there is no one they would rather fight with, and no one they would rather have around.

It is the most important relationship they have.

It will be the most enduring and hopefully one of the most meaningful.

My youngest can’t wait till her big brothers get home from school. My oldest - who is always the first to wake - begs me to let him wake up the others so the fun can begin.

Before any parents of singletons start to swear and hiss, take a step back. I am not damning your choices, nor thinking your child is missing out. In some ways I think parenting an only child must be the most difficult of all, and I know your child gets the same amount of stimulation, love, attention and opportunities as any other.

While parts of this post may not be for you, I am certainly not saying that kids with siblings are better off.  What I am talking about is my experience and that of my kids because this is what they have – a relationship unlike any other in their lives.

Four reasons your siblings are more important than anyone else.

1. No one else knows you unconditionally.

Sure your parents love you unconditionally, but your brothers and sisters are the ones who know you AND love you unconditionally.

They have been there not just through thick and thin but they were there when things began.

Who else has seen you eat your own boogers? Who else has shared a bath with a poo floater? Who else knows you secretly fed your peas to the dog under the dinner table?

2. They are who shape your sense of humour.

Those early Dad jokes, those family practical jokes. This is what will shape the things you laugh at for the rest of your life. Their future partner will one day stare at them quizzically as they try and convince them that there is simply nothing funnier than round-upon-round of knock knock jokes.

3. They will always have each other’s back.

I remember the first time I realised it was them against me. We’d had a long long day, everyone was acting out and I had enough. The final tantrum was the straw that broke not just my back but every element of self-control I had. As I picked up my youngest, having to practically drag her to the naughty step, her older brother two years her senior stepped in front of me. “She’s just tired Mama,” he said with a puffed up sense of five-year old importance, “just let me take her upstairs for a story”.

4. They will teach each other compassion and humility.

Yes they tease and fight and bicker, but they are always the first one to run to each other in the park if there is a bleeding knee, the first to sprint to their aid of their sibling if they have ventured up too high or can’t climb down a ladder.

Of course, they tease each other mercilessly but in moments they shrug it off and run to play tag.

They pull and push over toys before forgetting the angst in seconds at the thought they can jump on the trampoline together.

I know that life and relationships, and education and jobs will separate them at times but it makes me so very very glad to know there will always be someone out there – even from afar  - watching over them.

Do you have any others to add to the list?

Want more? Try:

9 reasons life is harder when siblings fight.

The results are in. And the perfect age gap between siblings is…