How Many siblings do you have/Are you an only child?

[Kid Presentable]

Wife says she doesn't want a "weird only child" but I maintain the only people who think only children are weird are people with siblings, who are therefore disqualified from having an opinion.

What's it like having siblings? When I meet people I just assume they're only children, and if they tell me about a brother or sister I pretty much just imagine a person who is identical to them in every way.

[TAL]

One brother 3 years older.
One brother 8 years younger.

It's nothing special.

[jabumbo]

i'm in the middle of two girls, its the best of both worlds :rolleyes:



but really, its alright. there are advantages and disadvantages to it, and it really just depends on the parents. only children are only crap if the parents spoil them too much

[Kid Presentable]

Parents spoiled me a bit; relative to siblingers anyway. I mean, I never had to share.

[na§tee]

a favourite teacher of mine maintained the fact she could always 'tell' an only child. my mother, too. now that i'm older i can normally tell what adults are the youngest in the family - not so much the fact they're an only child. it's a certain something.

i have one brother who is three years younger. i feel under pressure now we're 'adults' that we should have a mature relationship involving, uh, i don't know - dinner dates and phone calls and frequent conversating and the like. we don't. i speak to him extremely rarely. we're not 'buds'. he is a brother. an important part of my life but nevertheless not someone who necessarily knows the minute details of it.

i am a little bit jealous of people who are very close to their siblings. i don't have that. i'm lucky if i speak to him on the phone once every four months. i see him at christmas each year. that's about it.

[fucktopgirl]

We are 6

my brother 35
me 32
my sister 27
other sister 22
other sister 18
brother 16

I only have one kid, and i think that for me it will stop there although baby are so cuttttttttteeeeeee. Just saw my little nice of 2 days old and me want another baby!!! But i will resist.

The thing with having only one child is that they can get more spoiled, obviously, and parents have to be aware of that and be careful. They also have both parent energy and attention all the time, so more confidence in life. Once again, this can be relative. Anyway , from what i experience as a kid coming from a big family and seeing my daughter, she as more self confidence then me at her age.

[kleptomaniac]

i'm a weird spoiled only child, woohoo! :p :)

They also have both parent energy and attention all the time, so more confidence in life.

heh, somehow i managed to have no confidence at all. :(

[Kid Presentable]

Yeah, I have arrogance, but not a great deal of actual confidence.

[hitmonlee]

we've been over this...

i dont think i could have a child and deprive it of a sibling. how cruel. being left alone with your parents.

and then more...

http://www.beastieboys.com/bbs/showthread.php?p=1498883&highlight=sibling#post1498883

my feelings haven't changed.
only children can be odd/spoiled/socially inept

also if you invest everything into one child and it dies before its time, you're left with absolutely nothing.

that may sound a bit clinical, having a second child as a "backup", but i've seen it happen to families who lose their 1 child. they break.

edit: kid p i rarely had to share too. age difference + different genders meant my brother and i rarely wanted the same thing.

[taquitos]

1.5

[funk63]

4 little bros and 3 little step sisters

[desert_rain]

4 older brothers and one adopted younger sister. We're a large family....

[TurdBerglar]

i was an only child for 8 years


i wanted nothing to do with my brother when he was born and i still feel that way about him. i was very angry with my mother when she told me i was gonna have a little brother or sister. he's a very stressed out and emotional kid and always has been from day one. can cause a whole lotta drama and puts people on edge. i can't stand people like that. im a very calm and relaxed person and i would just always shoo him away and if he didn't listen i would use force to get him the fuck away from me and to leave me alone. i never understood why i had to be his friend. i just always saw him as this pissed off over emotional shit head that was always yelling and screaming. my dad did not like it at all that i wanted absolutely nothing to do with him. my dad's sister treated my father like shit... my relationship with my father was strained because of how i felt towards my brother since he tends to side with my brother.

[Miho]

One brother is early 30s.
One sister is early 30s.

I know. I'm terrible. I don't know their exact ages, but my brother is one or two years older than my sister. They are both around 30-33. I was born late. Perhaps a second thought.

Edit: Having said that, I love them both very much. I don't want to give out the wrong message.

[TurdBerglar]

aka accident

[Miho]

Probably. My mom used to tell me how she felt this sense of uneasiness after I was born. Like her mental health was never the same. I didn't, and still don't understand what she meant. You know what they say-- "a gift or a curse".

[Bob]

i'm an only child, but i'm weird, so hey

[trailerprincess]

I have a younger brother of 29 and a younger sister of 28.

I am very close to my sister, we're friends really and hang out all the time. I'm not as close to my brother but we still get on really well.

My mum wanted another one but I think she was knackered having 3 under 3's at the same time so changed her mind.

[camo]

A friend of mine has 'only child syndrome' as we've named it. We all take the mickey out of him for it. He never shares anything (food, etc), he never reveals how he's feeling or opens up to people, and he's very selfish to live with to. He always kept the remote for the tv by his side, used all the hot water etc etc.

I'm not saying all you freaks are like him though.

[Lex Diamonds]

Only-children are generally more fucked up than others. So are people with two or more siblings. I think having one sibling, close to your own age is the most wholesome set-up.

I have one brother and one sister, 10 and 12 years older respectively.

[Yorkshire~Rose]

I am an only child. That was my parent's choice. Although i am spoiled (even now) i don't feel like i was ever bratty and i consider myself to be a very generous person.

My daughter is 2 now and i don't think we are going to have any more children. We are very happy the way we are.

[russhie]

I have an older sister (26) and a younger sister (20) and I'm 23. They get along much better than I get along with either of them.

I suppose I'm the fucked up middle child - running joke in my family is that I'm adopted because I just don't seem to fit.

Two kids is good. Three isn't...someone always feels left out.

[P of R]

I have two older half-brothers. One of them which I haven't seen or talked to for 16 years.

[trailerprincess]

Did anyone see the '13 children and wanting more' show on Channel 4 last night.

I thought that the parents seemed quite mental but the children all seemed to be quite happy and well behaved

[venusvenus123]

^^TPrincess, i saw that programme for about 5 seconds and though "aaaaaaaargh, WHY????"

Wife says she doesn't want a "weird only child"
what, like you? that's nice for you! :(

it's funny how people can seriously think they can control what kind of happiness their child will have, or how well adjusted a person they'll be, by where they are in a family, or how many siblings they have.

i'm sure that wherever you are in a family, you'll either get the "spoilt youngest child", "superior eldest child" or "fucked up middle child" thrown at you. there must be a million other factors which determine how you turn out as a person.

my mother (youngest of 2, by a 2 year gap) hates her brother, and hasn't spoken to him in years. i know another woman who is the same. i think the ideal number of kids to have is 6 or 7. that way nobody gets too much love from the parents. :rolleyes:

i am the youngest of 3 girls, so obviously very spoilt :cool:

i have a few only-child friends, and i can relate to what yorkshire rose says. it must be annoying for people to go "oh, you're an only child? you're actually quite nice/considerate/generous etc".

me and my husband have spent the best part of the past decade trying for another kid to "give" my son. he tells me that he doesn't actually want a sibling tho, which is quite nice i guess!

[hpdrifter]

I think about this a lot too as I want a child but not sure I want more than one. I think it is important for kids to be part of a community of other kids and my hope is that if/when I have a child I'll be friends with other people who have children of a range of ages that I/my child can spend time with. That way he or she learns to be a part of a community but I don't have to produce 3-4 kids and take care of them.

[ToucanSpam]

I have a younger sister (20) and we get along very well. We've only in recent years been closer, probably since my grandpa died in 2005. I have no complaints; when I think about things that define me as a person, being a big brother is the most important thing to me.

[bigblu89]

I have a sister that's 1 yeah and 3 days older than I am.

And my parets still insist that I wasn't a mistake.

[Yeti]

I have 2 brothers. I am the middle child and we are all 4 years apart in age. Family planning at its best. When one was entering high school the other was leaving and when one of us was leaving for college the other would move into the bigger room.

My father is an only child.

I think my son will be an only child (you never know). I plan on spoiling him but teaching him proper values and manners.

[abcdefz]

I'm the youngest of four. Technically five; the first baby died during childbirth. My parents were done after surviving child #3, finally having
gotten their girl (they wanted one boy and one girl), so my mom was on birth control. I got through somehow and was pretty fucking
unwelcome.

[Jitters]

One older sister. She turned 21 this year.

[b-grrrlie]

I'm the oldest of three. Me and my sisters were born within three years of each other.
Also I'm the oldest of 16 cousins, from my mum's side (she had 10 siblings).
When we were younger we were all pretty close. Now we only have contact for funerals and weddings...
My father has one half-sister, 12 years senior, and there's only one cousin from that line.

I had no idea my sisters and cousins looked up to me, as in that I was supposed to look after them and
they took my word for law until about 10 years ago or so.
Also my friend's kids always looked up to me (single, independent, did whatever I wanted)
which sometimes hasn't been a good thing...

There was always loads of rivalry and fights between us three girls, especially the mid one.
She had much stronger will so she could get clothes she wanted (I knew we had it tough so
I was satisfied with second hand and hand me downs, except I really wanted a Marimekko's
stripey long-sleeved and never did and it still bugs me, over 30 years later...).
Our fights could get pretty ugly, banging on the back with clogs or biting hard...
And there still isn't the kind of family love between us (nor our parents, especially not with out parents)
as there's supposed to be.

Oh yeah and I found out just the other year that I wasn't wanted either. That figures.

[desert_rain]

Oh yeah and I found out just the other year that I wasn't wanted either. That figures.


Me either. I think its us "surprise" babies that grow up to be awesome.

[YoungRemy]

classic middle child.

11 years separate my older brother and my younger sister...

23, 30, 34



we are all very close.

[Caribou]

I have one sister, 7 years older than me.
We never got on extremely well. There was no hate, but the age difference made it difficult to understand eachother. When I started puberty and went to highschool, she'd already finished and moved out of the house to live with her boyfriend. We're also completely different people. She's like my dad: Bad tempered, loud, impulsive, dramatic. While I'm more like my mum: Quiet, responsible, calm.
There was a time when I wanted nothing to do with her, because she caused a lot of trouble, (I'm talking disappearing to america and causing a 8000 euro debt kind of trouble) which made my parents focus on her constantly. I was angry at her for always being so dramatic and doing stupid shit and getting all the attention.
Having said that, she didn't mean to do that shit. She always did try to look after me and could be very caring, but sometimes other stuff got in the way of that.

Now she's older, and has a little girl of her own we've been getting on much better. She's become much more responsible and relaxed, and because I'm also not a kid anymore we can talk about personal stuff. I didn't realise how much my sis cared untill I moved away to my own place last year and she started crying in the car, because she'd miss me so much. :(

[gbsuey]

i have an older half brother who i always felt closer to than my "proper" sister who's also older. i love her to bits and we live fairly close but we're not close-we laugh at how rubbish we are at even the most basic gestures,like birthdays and shit. my brother now lives in san diego so i never see him but miss him loads.

i'm really glad my kids have each other-i think they're pretty lucky to be so close -both being boys they're into the same things and although they do my head in fighting sometimes they totally adore each other. but they're three and seven so that could change-i don't think there is a right or wrong decision about having siblings for your kids-it's probably more down to how you play it as life goes on.

i wanted to see that thirteen kids thing but missed it-now that is something i could never understand-just one more kid would see me packed off to the loony bin!!!

[Dorothy Wood]

I'm an only child and I'm weird. my best friend is an only child too, we've adopted each other as sisters.

I actually have two much older half brothers who I haven't seen since probably sometime around 1984. Maybe not even the younger one since I was a mere babe. (he hates/hated our father) They are both married and have kids. kind of a shame I don't know them, but then again, I don't really care. I'm not super into family stuff, never have been.

I suppose I also have a step sister, she was cool, I got some big sister time back in the late-80's.

I have an ex-step-sister too, we got along and she was nice, but we didn't have much in common. her father was a dick face though, so my mom divorced him.


jesus, I've had a freakishly unstable upbringing. I really can't be blamed for being weird I guess.

[beastieangel01]

I was the only child until I was 14. Then my Mom had my little brother.

We have never had any trouble with fighting or anything like that. I almost feel like his second Mom at times but I'm the cool Mom that doesn't have to do any of the parenting really, just the cool fun stuff. :)

[instigator7022]

i have 5 younger brothers and sisters and i love it. There's always someone around. If i had been an only child there is no doubt i'd be a spoiled bitch.