Brothers and sisters. Pump up the volume.

[Jockice]

Well, we've done friends, so how about family?

How many siblings do you have? Do you get on with them? Are they interesting in any way?

Me: I have one sister, nearly eight years older than me. We've never been particularly close (she left home when I was ten and then not long after my folks and I moved to another part of the country) but tended to get on okay as adults until last year when we fell out to such an extent that I doubt if we'll ever speak again. You don't need to know the details but she has repeatedly accused me of stuff I haven't done and I've told her repeatedly that I haven't done. Enough is enough so I called a halt to proceedings. She didn't complain. Just told me I was evil.

Still c'est la vie. I'm sure I can cope with being a late entry only child. I'm sure there are a few who have been one for their entire lives on this site too.

[PlanktonSideburns]

Brother x1

Fought like mortal enemies till the day he left home, then became strong friends

[Underturd]

One brother, about two years older than me.  We aren't close, but he's proved that he'll move heaven and earth for me if necessary.

[Rev+]

None, but I suspect that one sibling was intended.  Or at least that's what they put on the application to the council, because I grew up in a three bedroom house.  My father's alcoholism was so out of control shortly after I came along - can't think why - that I think my mother put her foot down, and said you're only emotionally ruining one child.

People always ask only children, when they're younger in particular, whether they're sad that they don't have a sibling.  There's no answer to that.  I mean, the concept is okay, but what if they were a massive prick?  Hogging the ZX Spectrum and eating all the biscuits.  Frankly, no siblings must have meant more stuff for me and that's the best of all possible worlds.

[Jockice]

None, but I suspect that one sibling was intended.  Or at least that's what they put on the application to the council, because I grew up in a three bedroom house.  My father's alcoholism was so out of control shortly after I came along - can't think why - that I think my mother put her foot down, and said you're only emotionally ruining one child.

People always ask only children, when they're younger in particular, whether they're sad that they don't have a sibling.  There's no answer to that.  I mean, the concept is okay, but what if they were a massive prick?  Hogging the ZX Spectrum and eating all the biscuits.  Frankly, no siblings must have meant more stuff for me and that's the best of all possible worlds.

I have a cousin who is nine and a half months younger than me. He's an only child and for a few years during our childhoods we lived on the same road. Me at 84, him at 106. People meeting us for the first time always thought we were brothers or even twins although I don't think we look much like each other. He has big eyes and big ears while mine are tiny. We both have red hair though (or had. He'd gone bald by his mid-20s. Quite ironic as he's a hairdresser) and that was enough. Although his was lighter and much wavier than mine.

I suppose I think of him as almost a brother though. We were pretty close at one point although apart from supporting the same football team we don't have much in common. I read all the time whereas as a child he had one book in the house (a library one about tortoises that he never took back. We both had pet ones at one stage) so when I went to stay with him ( which I did practically every school holiday. My parents just didn't do going away) I always made sure I had plenty of reading material. Even as an adult he has only ever read one book. The Beach by Alex Garland. He's not thick or anything, just not interested. He's a good bloke but we're nowhere near as close as we used to be.

Anyway he told me that when we lived yards apart he could only bear being in my house for a short period of time because it was so noisy. Can't say I noticed.

He's married and has two adult children both of whom got married last year. I got invited to both, my sister didn't (I don't think the kids have anything against her, they just don't know her that well) and she was pretty upset so I got her invited, taking the place of my girlfriend who isn't well enough to travel.

We called a truce for the first one, I did all the driving (and there was a lot of it. The wedding and the reception were in totally different parts of Scotland) and was really REALLY nice to her. Less than a week later she started the accusations again so by the time of the second wedding two months later we travelled up separately, were seated separately and spoke to each other twice during the whole thing. Saying hello at the start and me telling her that her umbrella was still in my car if she wanted it. It's still in my car.

A few days later I messaged her a photo as a friendly conciliatory gesture and immediately got plunged back into being accused of more and more bizarre things. She crossed a line when she started it, then crossed another the second time but this time it was absolutely beyond belief. She's a very disturbed person and that's me being charitable. I tried to help but she pushed me so far that I never want to see, speak to or hear anything about her ever again.

Anyway, this post was meant to be about my single child cousin so I'll call a halt here.

[Dex Sawash]

Just one brother, jockice

[Buelligan]

A brother.  Love him like a brother.  More, if that's possible.

[sevendaughters]

A younger brother with whom I have little in common, but we get on fine enough. He is prone to saying wildly insensitive things like, after our mum died, "no disrespect, I think she liked me more" and he is now attempting to Big Man everything since he got married. He is very much happy in his small circle and I am glad to be out of town.

[Inspector Norse]

I never want to see, speak to or hear anything about her ever again.

Starting a thread about brothers and sisters probably not the first thing I'd do in this situation

[Jockice]

Starting a thread about brothers and sisters probably not the first thing I'd do in this situation

Entirely. Bad move on my part. But I am interested in family dynamics. My girlfriend and her sister no longer talk either and neither do a brother and sister who I've known for years. I'm friends with both but she won't even be in the same room as him. He's baffled as to why. Families are the weirdest thing on earth

[famethrowa]

One brother, two years older, a slightly taller, fatter version of myself. He lives about 5 hours away so I only see him a few times a year, but we have a strong connection mostly based on comedy nostalgia. I can send him a message of the most obscure stuff from 30 years ago and he'll be right on it. It's comforting

[Shaxberd]

People always ask only children, when they're younger in particular, whether they're sad that they don't have a sibling.  There's no answer to that.  I mean, the concept is okay, but what if they were a massive prick?  Hogging the ZX Spectrum and eating all the biscuits.  Frankly, no siblings must have meant more stuff for me and that's the best of all possible worlds.

Yeah, I'm an only child and it never bothered me. I did go through a phase of wishing I had an identical twin, specifically, but only because books and TV had given me the notion that a twin would be exactly like you and you could get up to shenanigans pretending to be each other. If it wasn't a clone of myself, fuck that, it's great having no competitors for who gets the last biscuit.

[Inspector Norse]

I have one sister and one brother, respectively two and four years younger. We are close but not close: we have all moved to farflung spots (I to Stockholm, my sister to Barcelona, my brother to, um, Withington) so only really see each other at Christmas and occasionally summer or other school holidays if we can time them right, and we don't do big emotional conversations but we get on well and enjoy hanging out and there have never been any grudges or resentments. My brother and I used to fight a lot when we were young but recognised that as fairly normal sibling behaviour, the younger one winding up the older for attention, and got over it.

Both have their own small children (brother has a toddler and a baby, sister has one toddler and a baby on the way, while I have two who are school age now) so that adds an extra dimension when we see each other. Facetime fairly often with my sister and her little boy, but my brother has some cheap phone contract and doesn't do video chats. The family Whatsapp group is lively though.

Entirely. Bad move on my part. But I am interested in family dynamics. My girlfriend and her sister no longer talk either and neither do a brother and sister who I've known for years. I'm friends with both but she won't even be in the same room as him. He's baffled as to why. Families are the weirdest thing on earth

I have cousins on my dad's side who I haven't seen since I was about 14: my dad got fed up of his sister, wasn't quite a Jockice situation but he felt she was lying to him and taking advantage of him without giving anything back so he just stopped talking to her. That's as I understand it - there may have been other reasons. I know that her husband wasn't widely liked in the family.
Her kids did add us on Facebook a few years ago, though, and I exchanged the odd comment or like with the oldest, who seemed to have turned out alright - saw for example that he shut down one of his sisters when she made some dodgy racially insensitive posts.

I also have cousins on my mum's side who I have very little contact with but that's just because they lived at the other end of the country when we were growing up so we hardly ever saw them, but my mum was close to her brother and still passes on news about them and we've met at the odd wedding or funeral and had nice catch-up sessions.

[Jerrykeshton]

An only child myself, but my wife has a sister that she's incredibly close to. Having been an only child with no really close cousins growing up, I find it strange that she is so close to her family.

Conversely, she finds it strange that I only really talk to two of my 7 cousins (I've not seen one of them in nearly a year), while she talks to most of her cousins on at least a weekly basis and sees large numbers of them when she goes home to Greece.

[Steve Faeces]

I have one older brother and two younger sisters. My older brother is sound. A generally good guy who gets on with everyone. Has raised nice kids and always a pleasure to hang out with him and his family. My youngest sister is also lovely. She's very good friends with my partner and we have a lot in common.   

My other sister is a pain in the arse. Hyper critical of anything family related whilst comparing it unfavourably to the apparently ideal life her dreary husband had growing up. It's not really my parents fault they weren't born wealthier (we grew up with a lot of love and more financial security than most in our neighbourhood did). Rows with my Mum constantly and makes her upset. I refused to be god parent to one of her kids. Have told her husband I don't like him to his face. So yeah proper bad blood.

[Sherringford Hovis]

Have told her husband I don't like his face.

People should do this more. Clears the air. Lets everyone know where they stand.

[Jockice]

Well I don't like my own face.

[The Culture Bunker]

One brother, two years younger almost exactly (our birthdays are eight days apart) - were never that close growing up, I suspect we both resented having to share space, hence the violent fights. I left home at 18 and we've spoken a few times a year since then - more since he had his two sons as I try and be a decent Uncle when I can. He's in many ways the opposite for me - scientific, academically driven (has a PhD in Chemistry) and works hard to achieve his career goals, while I drifted through school putting in the minimum effort and continued this attitude through my work life too. It amuses me the horror he and his wife show when members of my family observe this eldest boy shows similarities to me.

[Mortimer]

Two brothers, four years younger than me, identical twins. We get on but that near-telepathy bond that identical twins can have means that I could never be as close to them as they are to eachother.

Those formative years probably contributed to me becoming the solitude-loving old fart that I now am.

[lauraxsynthesis]

I was an accident, so there's a 6 year gap between me and my little brother. We also have a little sister. The two of them ganged up on me to get me in trouble with our mother when we were growing up and I'm not sure I've quite forgiven them. They are good people though and both have made me sweet nephews. Fortunately, they live close to my mother so have to put up with and look after her which is not a responsibility I want. My sister is a biologist with a very cool job looking after the wildlife of a tribe in the Northwestern USA. She drinks too much though and that worries me.

[madhair60]

as you were six years older i feel as though you could easily have beaten them up

[lauraxsynthesis]

as you were six years older i feel as though you could easily have beaten them up

I was a pacifist even as a child and so will go to heaven.

[madhair60]

let me know how it is

[Jim_MacLaine]

Two toxic elder sisters. My life and mental health have been immeasurably better since I cut them out of it last year.

[jfjnpxmy]

I have a half sister, that I didn't know about until I was 26-ish, and I don't speak to her cause she's mental and one time she tried to snog me.

[PlanktonSideburns]

Nice

[Gulftastic]

One older sister (by 13 months).
Didn't really get on as kids. She fucked off to that there London in her late teens, leaving me alone to cope with our Mum's mental illness. She returned when said problems got worse and has been immense since, especially the last couple of decades when my life has been dominated by illness. She also puts in way more than her fair share looking after our now elderly Mum. I wish I could win the lottery so I could give her a huge slice of it to show her how much I appreciate her.

[Stoneage Dinosaurs]

Two younger sisters. They aright