# Would you be friends with your sibling(s) if you weren’t family? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 15, 2015, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-be-friends-with-your-sibling-s-if-you-weren-t-family/725190 "2015-07-15T00:27:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Hugosvoice](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Hugosvoice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hugosvoice)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2015, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-be-friends-with-your-sibling-s-if-you-weren-t-family/725190/1 "2015-07-15T00:27:03Z")
I have often said that if she and I weren’t family, my sister isn’t the kind of person I would have as a friend. She is judgmental, racist, a drama queen, way too regimented and at times, extremely bitter. Very ‘the world owes me’. Although I love her dearly I can only take being around her in very small doses. Would you be friends with your sibling(s) if you weren’t family? ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2015, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-be-friends-with-your-sibling-s-if-you-weren-t-family/725190/2 "2015-07-15T00:32:09Z")
My brother is awesome and we get along very well, so I’m sure we’d still be friends as long as we still met. Well, as long as we met after he was 11. He was a terror until then. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2015, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-be-friends-with-your-sibling-s-if-you-weren-t-family/725190/3 "2015-07-15T00:36:10Z")
My baby sister and older brother: definitely. My oldest brother, who died in March: definitely not. The older sisters: possibly, but not likely. We wouldn’t run in the same ellipses. ---
**Author:** ![AnaMen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dfb087/32.png) [@AnaMen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AnaMen)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2015, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-be-friends-with-your-sibling-s-if-you-weren-t-family/725190/4 "2015-07-15T01:01:20Z")
Maybe, but we are, so we seldom speak. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2015, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-be-friends-with-your-sibling-s-if-you-weren-t-family/725190/5 "2015-07-15T01:02:44Z")
Maybe. We’re not friends now. Maybe if we weren’t related it would be different. ---
**Author:** ![MoonMoon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moonmoon/32/2959_2.png) [@MoonMoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MoonMoon)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2015, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-be-friends-with-your-sibling-s-if-you-weren-t-family/725190/6 "2015-07-15T01:16:19Z")
Well, we’re not friends now, so I can say no without hesitation. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2015, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-be-friends-with-your-sibling-s-if-you-weren-t-family/725190/7 "2015-07-15T01:19:58Z")
Yep. My brother and I are very close and very much alike. We would have had many of the same friends, as we do now. ---
**Author:** ![Hugosvoice](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Hugosvoice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hugosvoice)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2015, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-be-friends-with-your-sibling-s-if-you-weren-t-family/725190/8 "2015-07-15T01:26:21Z")
> [@MoonMoon](#): > > Well, we’re not friends now, so I can say no without hesitation. How do your parents feel about you not being friends? ---
**Author:** ![usedtobe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ec9cab/32.png) [@usedtobe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usedtobe)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2015, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-be-friends-with-your-sibling-s-if-you-weren-t-family/725190/9 "2015-07-15T02:31:04Z")
Of three sibs, there is one (baby sister) with whom I would actually socialize. One is one of those people nobody likes, the other went a very separate path. I sent him a card when his wife (who I did enjoy) finally died after stage 5 cancer for 16 years. Yeah, she was a fighter. I’ve wondered what would have happened if we had been raised in a semi-normal manner. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2015, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-be-friends-with-your-sibling-s-if-you-weren-t-family/725190/10 "2015-07-15T02:33:00Z")
Probably not. Our interests are too different. ---
**Author:** ![FloatyGimpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/floatygimpy/32/7750_2.png) [@FloatyGimpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FloatyGimpy)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2015, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-be-friends-with-your-sibling-s-if-you-weren-t-family/725190/11 "2015-07-15T02:39:29Z")
My older brother and I are close and I love him dearly and I know he loves me more than just about anyone in his life (his wife and boys are first). But we’re so different there’s no way we’d be friends. I lean very left, he leans very right. I’m not religious, he is. He likes hunting, I’m a vegetarian. On the other hand, he’s a huge softie who loves birds and pickles his home-grown vegetables. He’s an odd guy but I love him! ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2015, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-be-friends-with-your-sibling-s-if-you-weren-t-family/725190/12 "2015-07-15T02:49:57Z")
Hard to say. We’re 11 years apart so the chances are really slim but as I got older and he moved away two of his friends became friends of mine. And by the time I was say 20 better than half my close friends were 50 or older. So lets call it as possible but unlikely. ---
**Author:** ![purplehearingaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@purplehearingaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehearingaid)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2015, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-be-friends-with-your-sibling-s-if-you-weren-t-family/725190/13 "2015-07-15T02:58:15Z")
I had talked to my ex brother in years , no in my family has and his daughter want nothing to do with him. I don’t think my 2 sisters and I would be friends, the only things we have in common is we grew up in the same house with the same parents. My sisters never watch the news so I can’t even talk about breaking news. ---
**Author:** ![Isosleepy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/isosleepy/32/479_2.png) [@Isosleepy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isosleepy)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2015, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-be-friends-with-your-sibling-s-if-you-weren-t-family/725190/14 "2015-07-15T03:09:24Z")
No. Also, I unfriended him on Facebook a few years ago. Just nothing in common, and he tends to piss me off. ---
**Author:** ![chizzuk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@chizzuk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chizzuk)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2015, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-be-friends-with-your-sibling-s-if-you-weren-t-family/725190/15 "2015-07-15T03:38:41Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Probably not. Our interests are too different. Pretty much this. I like my brother and he likes me and we get on just fine on the rare occasions we meet up, but we’re very different people and I don’t think we’d naturally be friends if life hadn’t thrown us together. He does his thing and I do mine. ---
**Author:** ![Teach-me-not](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a4c791/32.png) [@Teach-me-not](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Teach-me-not)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2015, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-be-friends-with-your-sibling-s-if-you-weren-t-family/725190/16 "2015-07-15T04:23:53Z")
More likely to be friends with my brother if he **wasn’t** family. He is good to interact with – from a distance. But I don’t care for the way he has treated my parents or my now-dead grandfather. To be fair, my grandad was unnecessarily strict and controlling with him as well, which kinda started the whole unpleasantness. ---
**Author:** ![Whatever4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@Whatever4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whatever4)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2015, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-be-friends-with-your-sibling-s-if-you-weren-t-family/725190/17 "2015-07-15T04:34:02Z")
I get along with my siblings, mostly because I live so far away from them. I’m the youngest and the age difference combined with parental favoritism made me feel invisible and unwanted. I can handle infrequent phone calls. I’ve worked hard on maintaining contact. But I’ve very little in common with them, other than DNA. So I doubt we’d be friends. ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2015, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-be-friends-with-your-sibling-s-if-you-weren-t-family/725190/18 "2015-07-15T04:34:46Z")
My sister disowned me and has shunned me and Fierra since I came out. I haven’t heard a peep from her in 3+ years. I even swallowed my pride once and made a reconciliation move where I held out an olive branch, and she sharpened it, set it on fire, and stabbed me with it. Figuratively speaking, of course. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2015, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-be-friends-with-your-sibling-s-if-you-weren-t-family/725190/19 "2015-07-15T04:54:04Z")
> [@Hugosvoice](#): > > Would you be friends with your sibling(s) if you weren’t family? No. ---
**Author:** ![Hugosvoice](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Hugosvoice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hugosvoice)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2015, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-be-friends-with-your-sibling-s-if-you-weren-t-family/725190/20 "2015-07-15T05:24:32Z")
> [@Una\_Persson](#): > > My sister disowned me and has shunned me and Fierra since I came out. I haven’t heard a peep from her in 3+ years. I even swallowed my pride once and made a reconciliation move where I held out an olive branch, and she sharpened it, set it on fire, and stabbed me with it. Figuratively speaking, of course. Gosh, that’s awful. I’m so sorry. ☹ [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-be-friends-with-your-sibling-s-if-you-weren-t-family/725190.md?page=2)