I have a brother who is a year and a half younger than I am. If we just met in a bar or something, I doubt we would become great friends. My brother is a very reclusive guy.
Now, if we met by jamming together in a band, then I could see us being buddies, but still not that close.
**How about you? Would you be friends with your brother or sister if you weren’t related otherwise? **
Oh hell yes. In fact, if he wasn’t my brother, I’d probably marry him! We get along like a house on fire.
Hell, I’m not friends with him now! We don’t hate each other, or dislike each other, but we talk maybe twice a year. I don’t even know his phone number, to tell the truth. Our relationship as children was turbulent (just ask my mom!) and I moved away from my hometown for about six years after I graduated high school and we just grew completely apathetic toward each other. I still care about him (I keep up on how he’s handling the medication therapy for his MS through my mom) and I see him occasionally, mostly as a side effect of seeing my nephew, but we don’t talk and I couldn’t really tell you almost anything about him as an adult outside of the outside stuff that any acquaintance would know and the dribbles that my mother drops when I talk to her.
I wanted to add that it’s not like we don’t get along. I haven’t really argued with him in almost 15 years now. We love each other in a generic sibling way, and we like each other, but more as acquaintances with a history than as close friends. We just don’t have that much in common outside of our upbringing.
Older brother…No. If we were somehow forced into the same social circle, we would most definitely dislike each other.
Younger sister…Yes. We absolutely would be fabulous friends. In fact, we already are.
Much, much, much-younger brother…Probably not (because of the age difference), but I think he’s a great guy and I really enjoy spending time with him.
Hard to say… we get along like a house on fire, share the same warped sense of humor and enjoy each other’s company BUT have so little in common in every other respect that it’s hard to imagine that we’d get to know each other well enough to discover how in sync we really are. After all, he’s a sports-mad bibliophobe and I’m a sports-hating bookworm, and our differences go from there. I don’t know where we’d start talking in order to have a chance to joke with each other.
I would be good friends with both my brothers if we had ever met, which would be very unlikely. I may have met my older brother in high school and have some common friends, but not very likely we would have hung out much.
A friend sure. A good friend, no way. We have fundamental differences that I wouldn’t want to deal with if I didn’t have to.
No. We have nothing in common, and we don’t get along or like each other as it is. We would never have met if we weren’t related.
oh, absolutely. My brother and I (he is a year and a half younger) see each other every week or two, even though we’re an hour apart. We like the same music, share the same sense of humor, both enjoy gaming and outdoorsy stuff. We have lots of friends in common, even. We go on family vacations together and have been lifelong friends. Other than my wife, he’s my best friend and confidante.
If there were no familial resemblance I would swear I was adopted.
I don’t care for either of my siblings. So no, we would not be friends.
In our case, there is no family resemblance because of adoption, and we couldn’t be more different. It’s actually pretty amazing, and sometimes I wonder how much of it is a result of nature, and how much comes from being raised in different environments*. I don’t think we’d would’ve even spoken to each other if we weren’t related. Having my sister around has been a great learning experience for me. She’s the kind of person I would’ve pre-judged, and never gotten to know had we met in high school.
*My parents’ child-rearing philosophy has changed quite a bit over the years, so we sort of had the same parents in name only.
Oh, HELL no. I barely tolerate my brother due to the fact that we’re related. If we weren’t, I’d have nothing to do with him.
Not that we’d run in similar enough circles to even encounter each other if we weren’t related.
Hell, we’re related and we aren’t even friends. It used to be different, but now they’re people with whom I have little or nothing in common. Since growing up, they’ve acquired some ways that I just can’t abide. In all likelihood, I’ll never see any of them again.
It’s hard for me to say. I’ve noticed that as we age my brother and myself are becoming and seeking out other people more like each other. I’m looking to meet adventursome, outdoorsy people, and he’s trying to develop his introspective, creative side.
So, even though we are opposed personality types, we sort-of complement each other. I’d say that if we somehow managed to meet at all (given that we run in totally different circles) we’d probably both see the other as an interesting guy to talk to.
But I see questions like this as a bit nonsensical anyway. We ARE friends, so who knows what we be otherwise?
Hah. No. One sister’s an addict, another is a religious soccer mom, and the third’s got sever birth defects that preclude her from interacting in normal society. It’s safe to say that I’d not have anything to do with any of them.
Probably not. Like Omega Glory, my sister and I were adopted, and we’re so different that we never would have met. I love her and we get along, but she’s into new-agey, tarot card reading stuff, and I’m the atheist sceptic of the family. We’re like chalk and cheese. It’s amazing that we were brought up in the same house.
I’m just getting to know my brothers again after a (traumatic) ten year separation. Yes, I would be friends with them, even if we weren’t related. This, to me, is one of the most amazing parts of finding them - getting to know how cool they are and how much we have in common.
I always used to say that my best male friend, J., strongly reminded me of one of my brothers (even though we’d been separated since we were very young). Now I’ve found out that one of my brothers is eerily similar to J. in tastes, personality, like-experience and sense of humor. The other one (that I’m talking to right now, I’ve got two other brothers and a sister who it’s proving difficult to reconnect with) is so much like me that it’s scary. We have different tastes in some things, and he’s a lot more spiritual than I am - I lean toward rational/logical, even though my logic is sometimes faulty. Funny, though, he’s the scientist of the family and I’m the artsy-fartsy english major. But yeah, talking to him is kind of like having a conversation with myself sometimes - a much awesomer version of myself.
I’d probably be friends with my younger sister - we get along fantastically well, share a lot of the same interests, and so forth.
Probably not. Not because we couldn’t tolerate each other, but because we probably never would have met. We get along well, but just probably would not ever have had the chance were we not related.
Not a chance. Ever.
Yes, but not close friends. We think the same things are funny and enjoy each other’s company, but the choices we make are so strikingly different that I often find it difficult even to understand this sibling.
Yes, definitely. We get along swimmingly. We get along with one another’s spouses swimmingly. The resulting kids are adored by both Himself and by me, and we are in fact the stated guardians should anything happen to this sibling and spouse. This sibling/spouse are some of my favorite people in the world, and I think it would be that way whether or not we were related.
Interesting question, btw.
Probably not due to age differences and (mostly different) social circles… that is not to say, I enjoy hanguing with them, and I like their friends, and seeing them makes me very happy…
I introduced my sister to some of my friends, and they get along… if by any chance they knew my sister and presented her to me (through some chance) we probably would get along, perhaps even more than now. Being the little sister sucks sometimes…