How about “How often do you speak to your siblings, or am I weird?” I like being vague, sorry. No, that’s not true, it’s just a natural talent 
As you wish.
I speak to my sibling all the time (though most of the time she calls me on account of her schedule) and we’re best friends. We’re both women, 29/27 respectively.
My parents, otoh, rarely speak to theirs. My father is definitively and angrily (though it has mellowed to indifference) estranged from his only brother. Both my mom and dad are politely semi-estranged from the others, except they have 1 sibling each they still like.
I definitely think their family issues sparked a concern (essentially the fact that my parents were up sh*t creek to find us legal guardians as minors despite 11 siblings between the 2 of them) that my sister and I get along. To that end, I’ll say they were scrupulous that both of us get treated evenly and fairly by them.
Have I watched *The Princess Bride * too many times, or did you just confess your eternal and undying love for Litoris?
I have two sisters. The younger works on the 3rd floor as the same buliding as I (I’m on the first.) and the older one lives about 20 minutes from me. The last time I hung out or talked to my older sister was on New Years’ Eve and that become a shouting match. The younger sister and I probably hang out more, though not as much as we use too.
It isn’t that I don’t love each other them… I just can’t stand my older sister and the younger one is pretty judgemental and ignorant. It actually upsets my mother that my older sister and I can’t tolerate each other; but like I told her… If my sister was a stranger on the street I would have told her off a long time ago and had nothing to do with her. Just because she is blood, why should it be any different? She’s a leach.
Awwwww, you love me? suddenly has a case of the vapors
I talk to my sister just about every day, and she lives a few blocks from me now, so I see her a lot, too.
We have two brothers, and neither of us talks to either of them very often at all. They both live out of state, and neither of them tends to be a big phone talker. We e-mail sometimes, and we gab when we see each other, but we don’t call each other to chat.
Much different from my husband who doesn’t just “not talk” to his brother…they are actually “not speaking.” That I think is far weirder, although in their case it’s probably for the best.
I don’t talk to my sister very often, and when I visit in Colorado she will say something about going out for drinks or visiting again before I leave but usually finds some reason (or more usually, no reason at all) to not do so. I am too nerdy for her and cramp her style. She is seven years older than I am and for some reason has always had a weird rivalry with me which I do not reciprocate. We’ve got each other’s back in bad situations, but otherwise we aren’t close at all.
I hear from my husband’s youngest sister more often. She is only a few months older than I am. Well in the strict chronological sense anyway. She usually comes to me for advice and then gets mad when I don’t tell her what she wants to hear. 
I have three brothers, who all live on the other side of the country from me. I talk to my oldest brother almost every day; nothing special, we just chat about the stock market, or his horses, or politics. We both have Verizon Wireless, so it costs nothing. I haven’t seen him in person for over two years. The other two, maybe once a month or so. Emails more often though.
I talk to my brother (1 year younger) on the phone every couple of months or so. We were very close as kids and grew apart in high school and further apart going off to college. When I went back to school after a break, I deliberately chose the same school my brother was attending for grad school. I knew if I didn’t make a concious effort to be part of his life, we would continue to drift farther and farther apart and have absolutely nothing in common.
Then brother go engaged to one of my friends, moved off, and got married. I wasn’t prepared for how big a change marriage would be and how much it would change our relationship. He’d always had various girlfriends but a wife is a whole different thing. There doesn’t seem to be much room for me anymore.
Recently, he and my sister-in-law have talked about moving back to Austin. At first I was excited but, from phone conversations, I’ve realized that we’re now in completely different places in our lives. He’s married with a kid and believes that family means certain choices like giving up hobbies, etc. Plus he’s come into some money so he feels obligated to buy in a very expensive community as if a perfectly acceptable middle class lifestyle would some how mean he’s putting his kid at a disadvantage. So, even if he does wind up moving here, we’re probably not going to be close.
On the other hand, my mom has two sisters and a brother and they talk on the phone weekly and get together frequently. But they are all at similar stages in their lives. I think that may have a lot to do with it; if your lives have diverged a lot, it’s hard to find things to talk about.
Sorry to ramble so much, this thread is an opportunity to put into words a lot of things I’ve been thinking about lately.
I have three brothers, one in the same city, the other two also on the west coast. We talk on the phone at least once a week or two, email every few days…but we’ve all always been close. I see San Diego bro once every week or so…in this thread, it sounds like I’m unusual…
I talk to my twin sister at least 3 times a day and we IM during work. She lives 200 miles away. I talk to my brother when I see him a family gatherings maybe 3 - 5 times a year. He lives a little closer than my sister but not close close. He’s 3 1/2 years younger than me. I see my half-sister, 17 years younger, who lives 10 minutes away about twice a month. It was less before she had a baby.
The one I’m close to, once every two months. The two I’m not close to, never.
I speak to mine rarely enough that when my sister called me out of the blue several weeks ago, my immediate thought was that someone must have died.
I don’t think it’s weird at all. Then again, I only speak to one of my relatives, my youngest brother. We never had a relationship growing up in Ontario, mainly due to age difference. He has lived in Vancouver for about 20 years. We have grown into friends since I moved to Florida and got a life. He came to my wedding, and we talk on MSN just about every day, and have for about 10 years. Occasionally, I’ll get a tidbit of information about other family members, but that’s its own can of worms.
My sister never communicates with me at all. I haven’t seen her in 10 years, nor even a picture of the son she had a few years ago. I don’t even know who she is married to now. She and my other brother had a falling out some years ago. I don’t know whether they are back on speaking terms or not. I had a falling out with him as well, due to the 180 degrees his personality has turned around in the last decade. I have no contact with any other relatives. I have aunts and uncles and cousins I haven’t seen in up to 40 years. They have kids I’ve never seen.
It was probably the death of our parents that blew up the family for good. We lived through a lot of trauma growing up, and it made relationships that were tenuous to begin with, fall apart with no obvious reason to continue them.
Yes, but I love all of you equally.
And I’ve got the penicillin shots to prove it.
I have one sister and one brother. I haven’t spoken to my brother in 14 years and don’t have any desire to. He is a bad person.
I do speak to my sister every few weeks or so. But, I’m always the one who calls her. I have been busy since Thanksgiving and hadn’t spoken to her until this past weekend. She called and asked if I was okay. It’s a fairly one sided attempt to keep in touch.
Eric
Hmm, my brother 4 years younger and I were close as kids, grew apart when I left for university. I lived out of town a few years, and he would come and visit, but when we arent in the same town, we kind of drift apart.
We both did stints of living at home with the parents in our mid/late 20’s while we back to school, and did hang out a bit at home late night, talking etc. Later we both lived in Vancouver and we saw each other maybe every month or so, talked on the phone a bit more often than that.
Are we close? Distance no, age not really, emotionally, definitely. He’s great with my son, when there’s a family emergency he relies on me to cut through my Dad’s hyperbole and my mother’s understatement for the truth. I talked to him around Christmas, I will call him next week on his birthday, but after that it will be a few months before we are in touch again. He has email, but doesnt really check it, and I cant be bothered much with text messaging, although when I had it we kept in closer contact. I plan to move eventually and be closer to him, but again, we are very different people with different lives.
One brother I only speak to about twice a year, on his birthday and Thanksgiving or Christmas.
The other brother is a bit more often, but only every 3 or 4 months.
I wish we were closer, but neither of them is particularly good at keeping in touch. I’m kind of resentful that neither has been to visit me since I moved away from home 7 1/2 years ago. They’ll be here for my wedding, though.
I guess I’m rare in the thread too. I see one of my brothers almost every day. I see the other brother less frequently; he lives in another city, but we get together several times a year, plus holidays. My younger sisters are still young and be-bopping around finding themselves, and one has moved to Chicago, so I don’t see them as much, but I never forsee them passing out of my life because “we have nothing in common.” We love each other and I’m interested in what interests them. We’ll always have something in common!