It’s not easy to deal with a family member in prison, especially when it’s someone as close to you as a brother or sister. If you have a sibling in prison, it can cause a lot of feelings and emotions that you have to deal with everyday of your life that they are in prison. When the holidays come around, you wish they were at the family dinners and you want to see them on really good days but they aren’t there and it can really hurt.
There is no simple way to be happy with your sibling in prison, but there are things you can do to help make it easier on you and to help make your sibling feel better as well.
Write letters.
It’s very important that you and your sibling write to one another. If you don’t write letters, you won’t be able to keep your sibling filled in on everything that is going on and this could really make things harder on your sibling as well. Letters are a great way to tell someone how you feel and it’s the easiest way to talk to your sibling while they are in prison.
Phone calls.
You can’t talk to your sibling on the phone everyday, so it’s important that you talk on the phone as much as you can and make the most of those conversations. Don’t let any silence go by.. Talk talk talk!
Visits.
Just like with phone calls, it’s not something you can do everyday and when you can do it, you need to make the most of the time that you can spend with your sibling. Don’t spend the whole time crying.. Laugh and enjoy your time with your sibling. Tell jokes and talk about what’s going on in the family.
Include pictures when your write letters and when you visit. Send pictures of the family and of all the kids in the family. Yes, this can be hard for your sibling, but it’s good to keep your sibling involved as much as you can.
If your sibling has been in jail so long that your kids don’t really know who he/she is, it’s important that you talk about your sibling. Tell stories and show them pictures. Remind your kids that your sibling is a good person. Start taking your children with you to the visits when they are old enough.