Just a hypothetical question.
Let’s say you’re a 22 year old woman, who recently graduated from college. You have two brothers, one 33, another 30.
Your mother tells you that a few years before she married to the man that is now her ex-husband, she had a child with him. He’s alive and well … esentially, there’s an older full brother you’ve never known about.
How would you react? What would go through your mind? Would you be mad at your mother?
My initial reaction would be “cool, I have another brother.” My next reaction would be one of anger, I’m afraid. Why weren’t you ever told about this brother? Where is he now? What happened? Why didn’t he live with you? Etc…
I would then work on tracking him down.
My parents weren’t very good at secrets and I found out about the 2 older brothers I was never supposed to learn existed at about age 12. I was mostly confused and didn’t get angry until we ended up with one of them living with us a couple years later. But that was because he stole stuff and killed my cat.
Considering the three brothers I have… if any more siblings come out of the woodwork I’m skipping town with no forwarding address!
Hmm… my situation’s not quite the same as yours, but… I’ve got two half-brothers I haven’t seen since I was about four years old. I’ve no idea who they are, or anything about 'em. I can’t even tell you their names.
It’s a little weird, but I don’t worry about it.
Being mad is a waste of time. I found out about my half brother when he was 16. I just met him two years ago. I was initially pissed at my parents for hiding that from me and not spending time with him.
Talk to your mom and try to me him. Maybe it’ll all come together if you work at it and not waste time being mad and hurtful.
The hypothetical situation is … well, I’m the long-lost unknown older brother. I’ve met my birth mother and my younger brothers, and it went quite well. However, my birth mom is very reluctant to tell my sister about my existence. I’m a bit upset about it, because … well, I was raised an only child, and now, all of a sudden, there’s siblings! They’re a part of me.
I found out about my older full brother when I was 17 or 16 after we watched an episode of “Grace Under Fire” which featured a similiar plotline. Before my parents married, they had a son and gave it up for adoption. My older sister already knew, but my younger brother and I found out about it then. My mom doesn’t like me talking about it, but sometimes I wonder about my lost sibling somewhere out there.
Elmwood… I’m not sure how close the family is but now that the brothers know I would think it would be hard to keep the sister in the dark. And if I were the sister then I would be kind of pissed that everybody knew but me (everybody being my older brothers) The longer mom waits the harder it is going to be to tell her and not have her say “sheesh why was I the only one left in the dark?”
I do have a question though… I’ve always wondered this from watching too much tv. I know she’s related to you and I can understand you want to meet her… but while she’s your sister she’s also essentially a stranger to you. What was meeting your brothers like? I’m always shocked by the ‘reunions’ they show on TV where there is a lot of hugging and tears… I’d be far more reserved myself.
Dad and I were in a local “watering hole” when Little Sister came in with a date. Dad choked on his beer. When I asked what was wrong, he told me the man was his son from an affair. Then he asked me to tell my sister about it.
“Hey Sis, the guy you are dating is your half-brother, have a nice day.”
She did not take it as baddly as thought.
Boy, I’d have loved to see THAT one!
My son has two half sisters from his dad’s first marriage. Their mother moved away because my ex wasn’t paying child support and wasn’t part of the children’s lives anyway.
My son came to me when he was 17 and said he wanted to meet his sisters. I gave him some phone numbers to call to get his sister’s number and he called her. It went very well. The girls are lovely. The kids also have a younger half brother (dad was a very busy guy 
). I’m glad they all know each other. The one sister has warmed to our side of the family, but the other one keeps her distance. I can’t blame her for being standoff-ish.
I met my father, half-brother, and half-sister a few years ago for the first time. More accurately, I met my father and his wife. My half-brother and half-sister came a few months later. It definitely was not a Montel moment with overly dramatic hugging and tears, etc. I was accepted as a “brother”, but we’ve all joked about how difficult it can be as we are all essentially adult strangers that are “family”.
Since the initial meetings I am very close with my father, gotten pretty close with my half-sister too. My half-brother is quite a solitary type guy but we are friendly, just not very close.
My mother and I do joke that if we had not moved out of the small town I was born in, that she always feared I’d bring my half-sister home on a date sometime. 
MeanJoe
Apparently I also have a half-brother, who is five years older than I am. But since I have no idea what his birth name was or the name of his mother, I don’t think I will ever meet him.