I’ve gotten so many responses to when I say we are all females in my house

“you don’t mean it!”

“God forbid!”

“your poor Dad, has he considered getting a male child outside?”

There was this time in church, a guest speaker called my parents out to pray for them and conduct a special deliverance so my mum would get pregnant with a male child.

Societal prejudice towards being a girl? I’d like to think I’ve seen it all. It’s just one of the realities of growing up in a house of only girls – people seem to think it’s more of a curse, never a blessing. And when they try to be nice, it’s always in the thankgoodnessitsnotme kind of way.

But I love my sisters, they more than make up for everything traditional society thinks. It’s funny that people actually look at us and automatically conclude since we are all girls, then our house must be this ladylike haven full of pink soft and fancy things that are always clean, organized and have the best of fragrances (for the record, none of us are crazy about pink, we like it, but it doesn’t mean we go gushy over it). Well the real deal of growing up in a house of only girls?

1. It’s Always noisy – We mostly kept to our room and inside, it’s a chatterbox. Papa used to complain and complain and complain until he just resigned to making the whole room noise proof. Between the arguments and gossiping and all, I don’t know how or why people actually think we would be quiet and reading our bibles or learning at our mama’s feet on how to be proper wives, but we actually spent majority of our time in front of the tv or talking random things and making a hell of a noise. We made noise even when we were busy with our phones chatting or studying our books. Even doing chores was an opportunity for being noisy. Our parents always told us of how they can’t wait to kick us all out of the house so they’ll actually get some quality time peace and quietness.
2. It’s Always Scattered – we lived in a big small house where we the kids had our own sitting room, bedroom and bathroom. And there’s one thing to define it ‘SCATTERED’. It’s not like we didn’t put in effort to keep it clean and neat, but we play too much. One person is searching for her skirt and the next thing we know, everywhere has been turned upside down like a tornado just ran through the house. It’s way less scattered now that we are all no longer kids, with me out of the house, and Gee working and Sam having just a couple of days to go in secondary school. It’s considerably way less noisier now too.
3. We Are Chronic Collectors – and we had our collections spread around everywhere in the house. I collected beads, tickets of every kind and pens. Gee collectrd attachments and movie cds, Sam collected every thing fancy, colorful, pretty, technical and mechanical. Since our rooms could no longer hold our precious collections, we resorted to making space for them in other parts of the house. Girls are supposed to be neat and organized creatures right? And if you have three in one house, then you should be a really lucky guy right? Lmao. I still don’t understand why we kept hoarding all those useless stuff, it’s quite unnecessary but I’ll never part with my ticket collection.
4. There is soooo much clothes – Mama would storm our room and pack out all our clothes leaving only 5 items for each person but by the next week, we’d have our wardrobes and cabinets seriously overflowing with clothes again. To say we loved shopping is more than a mild understatement. What we always seemed to lack was shoes, we don’t do heels so much, we all liked sneaks.
5. And be careful not to drink just anything from our refrigerator, you never know when you’ll gulp down a full jar of face or hair treatment. One of my favorite things to do with my sisters, was comparing and exchanging skin care routines. At a time, boo even joined in on this. Sugar, honey, lemon, baking soda, pear, different face creams, you name it, we had it all, me being the underground supplier since I was the oldest and could get out of the house more. Another thing we delved on was makeup, but that was top secret because Papa forbade it.
6. The Talk About Boys never ceases. Oh no, we didn’t talk about boys that we like, we vaguely had interest in guys. We talked about boys we disliked, the annoying ugly dumb poor ones that pick on us. We would make plans on the safest and most effective ways to lure then gang beat them, we were our own gang. We would pick a boy then dissect his character and personality in the harshest criticism exercise ever. But if one of us liked you, then you are saved. When I got old enough and had my first boyfriend, my sisters were there to screen him and give honest opinions. They turned him into their big brother for constant supply of airtime and subscription. We didn’t keep boy secrets from each other, we were each other’s diaries for stuffs we won’t dare to tell Mama and Papa.
7. We Educate Each Other- from the best way to handle chores, to boys to periods, my sisters and I had always dealt with it all together. We made rules within ourselves and stuck to them, no parents allowed. We passed tips on everything from the best university to study in to the worst thing to wear on a date to how many kids it’s safe to have and what their names will be.
8. It Gets Really Competitive –like, really competitive. Everything is a competition. Who is prettiest, who is smartest, who is loved most by our parents, who has the fullest and longest hair, who has the hottest boyfriend, who has the richest boyfriend, who has the most clothes, whose wedding will be the best? I even told book then that I don’t care how rich he is, I just don’t want my sister’s spouses to be richer than mine, even if it’s just a difference of one naira. It’s not like I didn’t wish them well, if not anything, I want my sisters to have the best of the bests in life, but I still wanted to be leading, it’s no hard feelings baby.

People say a lot of things about families with only daughters, the society I’m born in prefers male children, but I don’t mind. My sisters are the greatest blessings life has ever given to me. They say growing up with boys make you stronger, but growing up with girls… make you the strongest. We may not be conventional ladies, but amidst all the drama and fights and hilarious moments of growing up together, I know Mama raised three worthy Queens.