h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

My brother and I have alwyas been close, there's only 16 months between us in age. Likewise my two sons have a similar age gap and get on very well indeed. (Just as well, since they're educated at home.)

I suspect that a small age gap is a generally a good thing. (Of course if you've already got a brother or sister, you can't change their age, but if your planning a family this might be a consideration.)

I wonder how much the size of a family makes a difference too ?
I expect 2 children often get on better than 3 - where one will often feel 'left out'. Any ideas ?

There are three of us in my family with an enormous age difference: my sister is 10, my brother 6 whilst I am almost 19, but we still get on perfectly well. None of us feels left out, because we are all so different - things that were right for me might not be in the best interests of my sister. I like being the eldest in some respects - I love taking them out with me, and most of my money goes on them... I remember my first 'Father Christmas' run, when I had to do the secret present shopping, and I felt so grown up... anyway... Contrary to popular belief though, being the eldest can mean that you miss out on things that your younger siblings enjoy - for example with music and schools, parents are finding their feet with their first child, and they smooth out the wrinkles, so to speak, when dealing with these things the second time around.

My sons, who are 20 months apart, fight like cat & dog. In fact they are like Cat-Dog . The youngest winds the eldest up a treat and the eldest beats upon his brother. I only see them at w/e now but I try to treat them fairly and evenly. I suspect that their mother plays favourites - but it does switch between the two.

They are very dissimilar - I think that you can't tell how the li'l darlings will work together. Just have the kids and worry deal with the rivalry later.

My sisters were around 28 months apart and got on well, then 5 years later I came along and was beat upon by my middle sister extensively. She was always in trouble at home and I was the Golden Boy. It would have helped if our parents had been more fair.

My little sis and I get along pretty well, despite the fact we're exactly 4 years and 9 months apart. (Exactly. Her birthday's April 3, mine's July 3). I'm not really sure why that is, but I think it has something to do with us often being the only kids in our neighborhood while we grew up. Everyone was either much older or much younger than we were, so we had to learn to play nice with each other. This of course is not to say that people should become hermits when they have kids so their children get along. We still had spats (practically every day, some days every few minutes), and we still do. But the real reason for such squabbles is that we both are highly sensitive, intelligent individuals who stress out easy. And because we're so close socially to begin with, well.... it makes it that much easier to yell at each other. She really is one of my closest and best friends... she knows everything about me before my other friends and our parents do... which is why I have to keep her happy, cause she has LOTS of stuff for blackmail.

... which brings me to a way to get rid of the constant hatred between siblings. The old one needs to go off to uni. That immediately makes the younger one realize just what they had, and they suddenly start acting extra nice. (Weird phenomenon, but I've seen it happen almost all the time, especially with two children of the same gender. It also happens with parents.). Works like a charm.

I'm not sure how relevant all that was...

*s off to tell Shorty about the forum so you get the other side*

Out of curiosity, how many brother/sister sister/sister brother/brother relations do we have at h2g2? I can only think of a few...

And now you get my side...

I think we get along pretty well, especially for two sisters, especially for being relatively far apart in age. Sure, we have our arguments (mostly because *someone* tries to act all mature and stuff ) and our physical fights (not that that's a common occurence, by the way), but sometimes all I want to do, especially if I'm having a really bad day, is just lay my head on my sister's shoulder. She usually shrugs me off, but hey, I'm her LITTLE sister. You're not supposed to be seen with each other, really!

But some sibling pairs that I know hate each others guts. I think those are usually between a brother and a sister. They fight all the time and get on each other's nerves and, well, plot revenge against each other. A lot.

I don't think there's really any way to work out the squabbles between siblings. It almost always gets better as you get older and more mature. Or at least once you're both relatively mature and one is old enough to drive or in university or both. And I don't think our parents did anything. Other than send us to our room once or twice. They figured we were smart enough to work things out on our own.


Oh yes. I have *lots* for blackmail.

And no, we're not in our twenties or thirties (well, I'm not yet)... ages are 19 and 14... amazing, ain't it?

My sister's on here, but she's lost her password again...

As for funny birthday coincidences, my birthday is 4th May, my sister's is 4th April and my brother was due on 4th December, only he had to be induced two days early.

My sister is exactly two year's younger than me, to the day. Our little sister is seven years and a week younger than me.

The story goes that when my mum was pregnant with my youngest sister, my godmother walked into a betting shop to ask the odds for three on one day.
They told her to "go away, these things can be fixed."

Incincently, I fought like cats and dogs with the elder of my sisters he whole time we were growing up. Despite being totally different there was real competition between us. We get on better now, but we still know exactly how to wind one another up and do so without even trying.
Conversely I get on really well with my youngest sister and always have, meanwhile my middle sister finds her really annoying and shouts and screams at her lots. It probably doesn't help that my youngest and I are very similar.

I don't think either of them are here.

I don't think Mandy explained the oddness of our birthdays. My birthday this year is on a Wednesday. So is hers. And Christmas. Next year New Year's is a Wednesday, and so is our dad's birthday.

?

My sister and me are about 18 months apart (I'm 18(almost), she's 16) and we rarely fight. In fact, it's only since my sister has started getting older that she has become more assertive and teenage-like, which during some instances, has triggered some outbursts from me. She does like to get her own way.

I've found that by encouraging each other to share our hobbies, that we get along splendidly. For example, I introduced my sister to some computer games of mine (which she now adores) and she introduced me to some TV shows (which I adore) and we both like to watch them and play them together, Which is nice.

I've always had a little trouble playing a computer game and watching TV at the same time...

I'm in a family with 3 children. We are all quite close in age. My sister and I are 15 months apart, and my brother is just 10 months younger then my sister. My sister and I are adopted, while my brother is the natural child of my (adoptive) parents. However the adoption issue should not change what I am saying because my sister and I were adopted at birth and regard out adoptive family as our only family.

The 3 children issue does come into play however. One of us was usually left out at some point or other. When we were younger tow of us would always gang up on the third. Sometimes my Brother and I against my sister, or my sister and I against my brother or my brother and sister against me etc. Echoing a point made earlier we were the only kids in a our neighborhood until I was about 10 (sister about 9, brother about 8). So in our youngest years we could only play with one another. Or more commonly fight. We fought quite a bit, but our disagreement would never last. We'd be at each other throats one minute, but sitting quietly the next. We never held grudges.

In my experience friends with siblings not so close together in age get on much better. Even if the age gap is only 2 years the difference is quite clear compared to the 15 or 10 months in our family.

Now we've grown up a bit more (I'm 18) we don't really 'fight' , but we're not the best of friends and don't presume we ever will be. But we can still function as a family and love one another. (even if our meal times are not like the current stint of OXO adverts).

Loving Insane

My sister's almost five years older than I am, and we've always gotten along really well. I think it helped a lot that we never went to the same school at the same time, so never saw each other in two different contexts. (People usually act differently with their friends than with their families, and we never had to deal with that.) Also, going off to college helps because if you only see someone once every three months, you tend to miss them a bit more. The one thing that bothers me is that we're so much alike that when I go off and do the things I want to do, I feel kinda like I'm in her shadow since she did these things a few years before, out of her own volition, just like I am now.

My little brother is MaW, even though he is waaaaaaaay bigger than me in stature and intellect.

and he is one of my three best friends

FABT