I am the youngest of five. I have sibs old enough to be my parents. My oldest brother was away most of my early years but when I got to know him around age 5 he would pile all us kids, neighbors included, into his car and take us to the drive in theatre to see every one of Clint Eastwood’s westerns. He also loved to fish and many times I remember coming home from school and he’d scoop me up and take me to the bathtub where he’d have a big fish, usually a Gar. He would act like he was going to put me in e tub with the fish but didn’t. Fun times. He is still my favorite brother.
My oldest sister got married and had a baby when I was four yrs old. She took me to Disney world with her family the first year it opened. The only time I remember her being mad at me was when she discovered I used her newborn baby boy’s clothes on a doll, outside in the dirt.
My other brother who is 8 yrs older was the mean one. Every single day when I got home from school he would twist my arm behind my back to the point I thought it would break. Every damn day. When he joined the Marines I remember crying and holding on to his leg so he couldn’t leave.
My other sister who is 5 yrs older caught hell from all of us. I really treated her badly, wore her clothes, wouldn’t let her on my side of the room and aggravated her when she slept. I feel guilty about how she was treated.
I live 800 miles from them and don’t see them often enough. I have a trip planned to visit in early November. It’s funny the things we remember the most.
I’m the 3rd of 4 (and the only girl). There’s 4 years between me and oldest brother, 2 between me and other older brother, and 8 between me and younger brother.
I was generally either ignored or put up with, especially by the oldest brother. It didn’t help that I was the only girl in the neighborhood, so I didn’t really have anyone else to play with. Oldest brother was also both very competitive and temperamental, which didn’t help.
As an adult, I still think oldest brother is an ass, but I am much better able to explain to him just where he’s screwed up and how much of an ass he’s being.
Other older brother and I are closer, but not super close.
I was a post-WW2 baby. My sister is 11 years older than me, my brother was 10 years older than me. They were both grown and gone by the time I was 8 or 9.
My brother treated me as an annoying little nuisance most of the time, but one thing stands out in my memory of those days. Shortly before my brother graduated high school and joined the Navy, I got beaten up pretty badly by a 15 year old down at the park. When I finally worked up enough nerve to start going back to the park, the kid wasn’t there any more. Finally somebody told me that my brother had come down to the park, pounded his ass into the ground and told him that if he ever messed with me again, worse things would happen. My brother never said a word to me about doing that.
That’s the way that I prefer to remember my brother, rather than the things that happened later on in life.
“General sibling torture” probably best describes the relationship I had with my two older brothers (5 & 7 years older), but only at home and only with them - in any other scenario they always had my back.
I’m the youngest of six. We were kid of three sets of two each. My brother, kid 5 of 6, really hated me and he took great delight in humiliating me, especially in public. He never ‘had my back’ at school. Unless he was sticking the knife in it.
He and I don’t speak today. My other siblings, well, they were OK. Some of them are a bit confused about why I won’t speak to him but they are OK with it.
My older (by two years) sister and I generally got along well. But she had something of a “Miss Bossy” approach to life, and I occasionally suffered until old enough to resist.
The most notable case was when I was 3 and we both were sick (probably flu). She got hold of a bottle of children’s aspirin (still existed then) and decided that if we each downed half the contents, we’d soon be right. I wasn’t yet aware that 5-year-olds were unreliable in such matters, and meekly followed instructions.
Fortunately, she was so proud of her medical skills that she promptly told our mother. I have just a vague (and unpleasant) memory of the trip to the hospital to have our stomachs pumped.
My older sister… Well, one example, she once bit herself on the arm, hard enough to leave marks, just so she could tell Mom that I did it to try to get me into trouble (Mom didn’t fall for it). We were always finding some way or another to torment each other.
We started getting along much better once we weren’t living in the same house together, though.
I’m the youngest. By the time I was old enough to remember both of my sisters were mostly out of the house. They used to push my baby carriage around and treat me like a doll so they were pretty nice to me. My brother tortured me. But it was mostly mental torture so that’s ok.
My brother is 10 years older than me. He’s definitely overprotective of his little sister. He’s always tried to view things from my age point and it helps that he’s a laidback, funny guy. We get along really well.
I’m the baby. They always treated me well (opposite to their own relationship between themselves). And it is funny because they will gang up on one another to defend/protect me. Bro will go “Don’t pester KG”, or sis will go “Don’t pester KG” depending on the situation. Unlike what they can be to other people, they seldom if ever have argued with me.
They’re much older than I, so once I reached adulthood our relationship improved, as I could participate in the same things and conversations as they could. I hang out with their friends when I visit them. And after my last move, out of the country, I got a message from bro saying that even if he didn’t speak to me often, he still loved me a lot.
I’ve said it before that I’m glad they’re my siblings because otherwise I wouldn’t have had the chance to meet and get to know them (we all have different personalities and careers that don’t mix).
My siblings and me were best pals as kids 8 %
Lots of fights, but also lots of friendship 37 %
More fighting/bickering then friendship 30 %
Nothing but fighting and bickering 10 %
It was so bad that We don’t speak to this day 6 %
No siblings 5 %
Other, see the comments. 10 %
My brother and I basically ignored each other. We had nothing in common, we didn’t really like each other and we each had a different relationship with each parent. We are perfectly pleasant to each other when we run into each other but we still have nothing in common and no real bond.
I was the oldest but there was no torture or exceptional kindness. I treated him no differently than the other kids in the neighborhood that I babysat. I kept him safe and out of trouble but there was no actual connection.
This is one of my biggest regrets and one of the reasons that I fostered a better relationship between my kids. They also have little in common, they’re probably more different from each other than my brother and I were but they get along great and even chose to share a house when they started university.
One sister, about a year and a half younger than me. We don’t like each other. At all. We tolerated each other until early grade school, mainly for lack of other playmates, but after that we led separate lives as much as possible. The only things I can recall ever prompting us to team up were instances when our mother was being particularly bonkers, to the point where everyone but Dad had noticed.
I don’t think I’ve clapped eyes on her more than once or twice since my university commencement almost a decade ago. The last communiqué I got from her was an email excoriating me for pointing out the many ways in which our family was dysfunctional, and moving across the damn continent to get away from it. A good friend of mine, who’s known me since we were fourteen or fifteen, pointed out that the whole thing sounded eerily like my mother.
My older brother I think had a harder time. Part of it may have just been the parenting of the first child. Parents are still learning, and I think there is a lot of pressure, or call it expectations to be met. He became a bit of an introvert.
I was the second son. I was golden! And I really do think it was in part because parents just cannot maintain the same level of stress for the next child. They ease up a bit.
To answer the OP, my older brother let me drive his car to take my girlfriend out on dates, and to the drive in movies. It was an awesome example of 1970 muscle car. He also had a gold and mahogany 1970 Les Paul guitar that I attempted to play.
But I was the one out having fun while he sat at home.
Second son is the way to go, unless you are a Prince of England.
My older brother (seventeen years older than I) accidentally shot me in the leg at an indoor gun range. I teased him about it for the rest of his life.
I have one brother, four and a half years older than me. Childhood was full of “general sibling torture”–teasing, a little punching, etc. I say he was excruciatingly cruel to me, but it really could have been worse. There were no emergency room visits, and I was never actually afraid of him. He still cared, and every now and then he would actually show it.
As adults, we lead separate lives and really only talk to each other if we’re in the same room or it’s somebody’s birthday. We don’t dislike each other, we just don’t have all that much in common other than our parents and our sense of humor.
I’m the youngest of 5, all born within 6 years of each other. There was some general sibling torture, but I would fight back. My oldest sib is a brother, the only boy. He tormented the twins, but they cried easily and I was tough. Our parents are gone now, but we all still talk regularly, although the brother less then the group of girls.
Youngest of 4, all 3 years apart (girl, boy, boy, girl). Sister and I, being 9 years apart, grew up as “only girls.” She didn’t like me from the day I was born because she knew she’d never have her own room! We get along great now. I worhsipped my brothers, who couldn’t be bothered to acknowledge my existence. Both turned out to be addicts with social interaction problems. I have no communication with the one, marginal with the other (and that’s only because my sister speaks to him).
My brother is less than a year older than me, and we were more like actual twins than “Irish twins.” Best of friends, no general sibling torture or anything. Our little sister was four years younger than me, and I don’t recall torturing her, either. Mostly, I played little mommy when needed, and otherwise ignored her when I could, until we were both teenagers. We became good friends around the time she was 13 or so. All in all, I think we were exceptionally close siblings, and we always had one another’s backs against any outsider.
He’s always tried to view things from my age point and it helps that he’s a laidback, funny guy. We get along really well.
They always treated me well (opposite to their own relationship between themselves). And it is funny because they will gang up on one another to defend/protect me. Bro will go “Don’t pester KG”, or sis will go “Don’t pester KG” depending on the situation. Unlike what they can be to other people, they seldom if ever have argued with me.