Age gap between siblings..

[Astral Alex]

Just a random debate I thought I'd start as it was an interesting topic to discuss in an RS lesson today...

What are your opinion on the age gaps of siblings? An example:

I am one of four siblings, my brother (b. June '95), myself, (b. June '96), my sister (b. June 97) and my youngest sister (b. July '98). There is a year between all of us, and we all get on famously - although, me and my youngest sister often have rows.

Now, some of my cousins (who are brothers and sisters) are an entirely different story:

Oldest Cousin (b. February 1990)
1st Middle Cousin (b. April 1991)
2nd Middle Cousin (b. July 1994)
Youngest Cousin (b. December 2011)

They all have the same mother and father, my auntie in fact had my youngest cousin aged 48 (unplanned). But there is almost a 22 year age gap?!

I was thinking how the Charmed sisters varied to do with their age gap, there was five years between Prue and Phoebe, do you think this affects sibling relationships?

Discuss.

[cyma]

I’m the oldest of three siblings, brother in the middle and a baby sister(still call her a baby despite the fact she’s fifteen). I share a three year gap with my brother and a ten year with my sister. Gotten along perfectly with my sis when she was a kid, but my brother? Our fighting used to be the hair-pulling, face scratching and punching kind when we were kids. That obviously stopped when he grew taller and stronger than me though his constant habit of annoying both his oldest and youngest sister didn’t And now that my sis is in her teens, we do have verbal spats now and then.

So yes age gap does affect sibling relationships, but just like everything, it does seem to change over time.

[Esmeralda]

Yeah, I think once you're adults, it truly doesn't matter what the gap is, while as kids it definitely does. I'm 58, my oldest brother is 57, my middle sister is 54, my middle brother is 51, my baby sister is 47 and my baby brother is 44, and now we're just brothers and sisters, even if I do still consider the two youngest as my baby sister and baby brother, despite the fact that they have kids of their own.

But when we were young, say when I was 18, we were 18, 17, 14, 11, 7 and 4, that baby brother and baby sister seemed more like *my* own babies than siblings, and I was always closest to the brother who's just a year younger--me and my middle sister fought like cats and dogs, although we're good friends now, although not as close as I am to my baby sister and baby brother.

It just depends upon your likes and dislikes.

[forbuss]

I have one sibling, who was born in Dec 88, and me June 91 (1.5 years apart), and we still fight a lot (but are good friends at the same time). We are the complete opposite of each other!

[forbuss]

Also to add: I think personality counts for a lot of it too.

[Astral Alex]

True.

Me and my brother are almost like best friends, I love it - but we do row occasionally, mostly over girls or something silly like that (one problem about being so close in age, our friendship groups merge together somewhat) and me and my middle sister get on well, mostly because she is a very passive person. But my youngest sister is very obnoxious and often rubs us all up the wrong way.

My cousins however are very different. My oldest cousin (born February 1990) had a baby in October 2008, so she was a mother of a three year old when her youngest sister was born in December 2011!

They treat their baby sister as more of an aunt/uncle relationship than a brother/sister.

[forbuss]

Alex - I had no idea that you were only 15! You come off much older on the board, I was actually floored and had to look at your profile a couple times!

[cyma]

Same here. I thought AA was in his 20s

Feb 9, 2012 15:24:27 GMT -5 Esmeralda said:

Yeah, I think once you're adults, it truly doesn't matter what the gap is, while as kids it definitely does.

So true. My Mom and her younger brother or my younger uncle used to fight too and instead of hair-pulling like me with my brother, it was hair being ripped out of the roots and the involvement of insects and mud Looking at them now, it’s just hard to believe they were capable of doing that to each other.

Feb 9, 2012 18:54:44 GMT -5 Astral Alex said:

My cousins however are very different. My oldest cousin (born February 1990) had a baby in October 2008, so she was a mother of a three year old when her youngest sister was born in December 2011!

Lol. It happens. For many years I believed one my relatives was my aunt(Dad’s cousin). It was recently I discovered that she was actually my cousin and her mother who seemed more aunt-like toward my Dad was my Dad’s cousin.

[Astral Alex]

Haha thankyou, I'm going to take that as a compliment

And yes it is weird, I know somebody who had a baby aged 15 and had her final child at 46, making a 32 year age gap between the brothers, it's insane!

[Astral Echo]

Me and my brother are only three years apart and because of that, we've always fought like cat and dog. Because were so similar as people, we butt heads a lot and particularly because were both opinionated we often fight about the stupidest things.

But now I live on my own, we have a much better relationship. We have the ability to hang out a lot more than we ever used to.

[Esmeralda]

LOL, the same thing happened with my middle sister and me where we became friends after I moved out. I think it's the proximity that can bring on problems.

[Chrisaholic]

Then lucky me, I'm an only child. Or not, but I know of my parents who always have siblings that the gap didn't matter. It may only have come better if the older one had moved out then anytime.

[BurkittsvilleGuy88]

I am the youngest of four. I was born February 28, 1988 (and yes, I do have my 24th birthday coming up!!). I have a brother who is six and a half years older than I am (he is 30, born on August 7th, 1981). I have two older sisters, of them born August 16th, 1978; the other January 11th, 1977). I get along decently with all of my siblings, especially now that I'm entering my mid-twenties. But I've had all-out raging arguments over things with my eldest sister in the last five years as I was leaving my teens and entering my twenties. I grew up getting along famously with my second middle sister, with some spats in between during my teen years. My brother and I have gotten along pretty well over the years. We used to wrestle as kids for fun, but have had the least amount of sibling rivalry as adults. How well you get along with your siblings does depend on age gaps to a certain degree, but it also depends on each other's personal views and opinions on things, and what everybody's interests are. One of the great things about watching Charmed is that since I was about fourteen, the show has taught me a great deal about caring for your family and having that close bond and honor to your siblings no matter what.

[prueturner61]

I'm the oldest of five.And there's a few years difference in our ages