How was your relationship with your siblings?

Times of peace and times of war. As adults we get along fine so long as we don’t talk politics.

My relationship was and is distant.

There are large age gaps on both sides of me. My older brother and sister are 6 and 5 years older; my younger brother is 8 years younger. Until my brother was born, I was the baby of the family; after that I was a classic “lost child”.

Because of age differences, I never played mush with siblings, and never hung out with them when I was older. The only times we ever got together or even get together now, was and is at family events (Thanksgiving, Christmas,funerals) featuring our parents,

I had a tumultuous family life, and that affected my relationship with my siblings.

My brother and I fought constantly. My sister and I never really became close.

Brother was our mother’s favorite. Sister was stepfather’s favorite.

When mother and I had our falling out, my sister stopped talking to me except to beg me to pretend to get along with Mom once or twice a year.

My brother and I now get along fine. He’s been cast out by our Mommie Dearest now, as of last week. I’m going to take over watching his kid on his custody days while he works. Which is good because I wouldn’t trust mother and stepfather to care for a goldfish I didn’t like.

I had one brother (now deceased). We were so different, in so many ways. He was almost 8 years older, and came of age in the late ‘60s. We even spoke differently; he had a pronounced Texas accent, which I never had.

My parents were at a complete loss for how to deal with his rebelliousness, and I overheard many belt lashings and anguished discussions. Probably in reaction to all this, I was very much the “good kid” and the non-confrontationalist. I think my parents saw me as their second chance at getting it right, and I do feel that they were the best parents they knew how to be. I was loved and nurtured.

Looking back, I can see that it would have been easy for my brother to resent me for the difference in how we were treated. There was a certain amount of early teasing, but no more, I think, than is typical among brothers. And beyond that teasing stage, he really seemed to be proud of me, and expressed it in some very touching gestures that still fill me with gratitude.

As adults, we never had much occasion for contact. We remained very different people. But I did get to spend a little time with him toward his end, and got to tell him how much his kindness had meant to me.

In my younger brother’s recollection (never, in my opinion, especially accurate), I was a tyrant when we were boys. As adults, we got along fairly well until sometime in our 40s when we had a major falling out money and an assortment of built-up grudges. Since then, and especially since our mother’s passing a few years ago, we’ve been almost entirely out of touch despite a number of efforts on my part to open communication. Lately I’ve been thinking I’d like to try again, but I’m not sure I want to deal with another rejection. The estrangement makes me very sad—we’re the last of our family and the clock is ticking.

Brotherly x2

Older brother was abusive and I have a very distant relationship with him now; younger one and I fought and played but are very different in some of our practices so not super close. We do see each other about five times a year and he was supportive during my divorce.

Fight no. Squabble yes. Rivalry, hmm, well not on my part. Favorite, hmm. My sister )first born) was my dads favorite till I (5th and last) came along and my mom’s favorite was the middle child (boy) but she defended and did more for the 4th kid. The second born child was admired the most for the first few years but then he hit the teens and became a horror for a few year.
Look from an adult perspective now, I realize we all make our own realities or sometimes others interfere and mess things up.
1st. Child was the favorite of my dad till and aunt. They lived with my aunt so she bonded most to my aunt.
2nd. Didn’t like physical interaction since a baby. He always pushed people away.Was very intelligent.He went down the wrong path as a teen.
But my mom still adored him till my third sibling came along and was a very needy 3rd baby and was very attached to my mother.
4th Happy kid but very gullible but at first he cried a lot and my dad didn’t have patience so my mom coddled him more.
5th. Me. I was adored at first and my dad adored me because I was the baby. I adored both my parents but then my realationship with my mom hit the bricks as I hit my teen years and she hit menopause and hot flashes. It was not a peaceful time between us.

I have a four years older sister. When we were little kids she was a bit of a bully to me sometimes and other times we played together happily.

When she hit high school she soon had a rebellious phase where she was really surly and didn’t get along with our parents at all. I never stopped being a goody two-shoes so I think somewhere along the line she became a little resentful about me being the golden child.

It was very soon after she went off to college that I got sick, so she wasn’t around for much of that, though I have a fond memory of her coming to pay me a surprise visit in the hospital one time.

When I went to college I didn’t make as much time to call her as I should have.

I love and admire her very much now, but she is in another state and I still don’t see her as much as I would like. I haven’t seen her since Christmas.

One sister. Growing up we didn’t particularly fight much, but we did have the occasional spat (what siblings don’t). She’s four years older, so we pretty much ran in different circles as well. As adults we’re not particularly close. We live several hundred miles apart and don’t really keep in touch ether. Most info I glean about her comes through my dad and what little her son posts to Facebook (and I’m sure likewise for her). We’ve seen each other like twice in eight years. I won’t even get into her behavior.

Non-existent, I am an only child.

I have one sister who I believe hated me since birth. We were never close. The only relationship we had was lying to our parents for each other and when she had a kid at 19 (I was 16) she was so nice to me so I would help take care of my nephew, for like 2 years. He used to call me mama tinyfaery.

My older brother (by one year) had schizophrenia but was very kind and shy, so I was close to him. My younger sister (by one year) and I were like twins, and we had a lot of bickering, but a lot of love. We did everything together until we were teens, and then had very different interests.

Never close to my Brothers or Sisters shared a room with my middle brother we would fight all the time I hated my home life my brother is 4 years older than myself.

I used to fight with my sister when I was younger. She was (and still is) the smartass older sister and I was an annoying younger sister. Now that she married and lives in another house, we are fine, but we never were really close.

As for my brother, I couldn’t care less about him. We don’t communicate at all. I hate him and he hates me.

I have more fond opinions of my cousins I’ve seen only few times in my life that of my siblings, who I lived with for twenty years.

Have one sister who is way younger, so I spent a lot of my childhood alone, enjoying both the positive and negative attention of my parents. Didn’t like her at all in the beginning but can’t live without her now!
If we fought, it would probably be because of her treating me like a friend with snide remarks. That is something I can’t get used to at all considering the age difference.

I came from a family of 6 children. There were 4 boys, and 2 girls. The 4 boys are all older than my sister and I. I’m the youngest girl. All 6 of us were taken away from our parents. My sister and I were always put in the same foster homes. We lived with 4 foster families in 10 years. I was 2 years old when we were taken away from our parents. Growing up in these foster homes, my sister acted like she was jealous of me at times. Maybe it was because she thought I got my way too much. She was often mean to me, and bullied me. Even when other kids would bully me, my sister would go along with them. She would never stand up for me.I got so angry at her at times, that I couldn’t cry. So I would go in the bathroom, and wash my face down, and let the water run down my face. Then I would come out of the bathroom, with the water running down my face, so it looked like I was crying. Our foster mother would notice the pretend tears, and then she would make my sister apologize to me.Then my sister would give a quick,“I’m sorry”, that never sounded like she really meant it. I often thought that she said she’s sorry because she was being forced to say it by our foster mother.

My sister and I are estranged now, because she mistreated me in such a way, that I would have to be a fool to trust her again. I feel that it is not so easy to go back in contact with her because our reasons for our estrangement involves her 2 sisters-in-law, and 1 of her brothers-in-law. Her in-laws do not like me, and they made up false accusations about me that my sister believes. Her in-laws have brainwashed my sister,and have separated us because of their words and actions. I had heard from 3 of my sister’s other relatives by marriage that everything that was done and said to me was planned, and intentional. I defended myself, but my sister doesn’t believe me. She only believes what her 2 S-I-L,
and her 1 B-I-L say about me.

I only see my sister at funerals that we both attend. Infact the last time I seen her was at the funeral of one of our girl cousins in November, 2015. I write her emails that she doesn’t reply to,even if they are news about family members being sick or in the hospital. I know that she must be ok, because I see her posts, and pictures on Facebook. I am afraid to go back in contact with her because I’m afraid that the drama will start all over again, and I can’t deal with that anymore…I have enough to deal with in my own family because my husband has been dealing with fighting Cancer for 2 years and 8 months…my sister never calls me just to talk, or even to find out how my husband is doing with the Cancer…So there’s nothing much I can do about our sister situation…enough is enough, and it is what it is…