With Bill Clinton’s half-brother’s arrest being in the news, it seemed odd that he was labeled as such. IME, when siblings are “halves”, the qualifier is usually dropped. In fact, I can’t think of a single time that someone was introduced to me as a “half-brother” or “half-sister”. Step siblings seem to be different. I’ve seen many cases where people were introduced as step-this or step-that. I don’t have either in my immediate family but I’m curious if there’s a convention.
So, if you have a “half”, do you refer to them that way? What about “steps”?
I’d probably leave the “half” out of it during introductions (the situation has never come up), but if I’m telling someone about them, it could go either way.
I have no steps. I don’t distinguish between my half sister and my full siblings verbally, but do emotionally; I didn’t grow up with her. But I love her daughter as a niece in the same way I love my other nieces (though not to the degree that I love my favorite niece).
I drop the ‘half.’ I don’t have any steps, but two of my siblings have step-children. Since they became part of the family at a relatively early age, I refer to them as nephews and nieces without any qualifications.
But if one of my siblings happened to remarry someone with children, I would probably think of those ‘kids’ as “my sibling’s stepchildren.”
I refer to her as my half-sister. I think a lot of the reason for that is because we grew up separately. I didn’t even meet her till we were adults. So there’s not that ‘sibling’ bond going one.
No. My half-brothers and sister are as much my siblings as my full brother and sister, and I think o fthem as such. It possibly would be different if I were not the youngest by far, and grew up knowing them all as just my siblings first. But that’s how it stands now.
Does it make a difference if my mom got remarried late in life? I mean, I met my “step brothers” when I was 32. I live across the country and don’t even know all their names, so it feels very wrong to use the term “step brother”!
I have a stepsister, but she became my stepsister when we were in our 30s, and so we didn’t grow up together, and I don’t think of her as my sibling, even though I like her quite a lot. My son has cousins who are the children of my husband’s step-sisters. They are just his cousins. He is growing up with them as cousins, even though, like my stepsister, my husband did not acquire his stepsisters until he was an adult, so stepsisters, but full cousins.
FWIW, I see my full cousins a lot, and their children, who are technically second cousins to my son, are just his cousins, and he refers to my cousins as “aunt” and “uncle.” He sees some of them more often than he sees my brother and his wife.
If I had grown up with my stepsister, I might refer to her as my sister, without the step, since it is typical of my family to make relations close. That’s especially true if my stepsister and I had grown up in the same house.
FWIW, my stepfather is referred to as such, even though I like him quite a lot. I address him by his first name. My son calls him “Grandpap,” and I refer to him as my son’s grandfather sometimes, because my father died many years before my son was born, and my stepfather has always treated my son just the same way he treats my stepsister’s son. He tells people he has two grandsons.
I always said stepsisters because I want people to know we are not, in any way, biologically connected and it is only my widowed father’s ill choice in re-marriage that makes us in any way related.
All of my brothers are half-brothers, but really I just call them my brothers
Now, not all of them may think the same way about their half-siblings and step-siblings…and that is their problem, and why I don’t like them very much.
I have two half-sisters who I grew up with in the same household. I refer to them as my sisters. It would seem strange to refer to them as anything other than my sisters.
I also have two step-siblings and a half-brother that I did not grow up with, and whom I have never been particularly close to (even though I have known them since I was very young, but only for a few weeks a year when I visited for the summer). I refer to them as my step-siblings and my half-brother, respectively.
all of my siblings are either halves (3) or steps (8) - unless we are specifically talking about geneology/parentage, I would generally drop the half/step part of it in normal conversation, but the reality is I don’t generally talk to any of them or about any of them, so it rarely comes up these days.
Back in the days when we were either in the same household or on friendlier terms - they were just brothers and sisters.
My mom was married three times… 1st marriage = three children, 2nd marriage = four children, 3rd marriage = one child (me). My siblings ranged from as little as 13 years older than me to as much as 28 years older than me. My father’s marriage to my mother was his second and, until I was born, he had no genetic children.
ALL of my siblings referred to me as their half-brother… though (and I was in my teens before I noticed this) the children from marriages 1 & 2 didn’t make that distinction among them.
All my half/step/whatever relatives are considered my regular relatives as long as they act that way. A step-sib who acts like a sibling is a sibling. Almost all of them are like this.
I only go into details when someone asks or it’s important to sort something out for some reason.