Who comes from a large family?

cassiehunt

Did you have more than one brother or sister? Did you guys get along pretty well? Do you get along now? Can you tell me about your experiences growing up in a large family.

soontobeabride

Contemplating an addition? I have two sisters. DH has two brothers. I don't really consider 3 kids a large family, because that's what I'm used to. More than 3 kids though counts as large, IMO. Anyhow, I think a lot of how well kids get along depends on the age difference between them. Personality type too I guess, but you have no control over that. DH and I are both the oldests. I have a sister who's 3 years younger and then one 2.5 years younger than her. DH has a brother 1.5 years younger and one 3 years younger. I did not get along with my sister who's 3 years younger at all growing up. I was spoiled - first child, first grandchild on both sides - and didn't really want to give up that attention. I got along much better with my youngest sister. The age difference was great enough that there wasn't as much competition, because we were just in totally different stages. My younger sisters were much closer to each other and still are now than either of them is to me. As the oldest, I got stuck with the caregiver role a lot, so I wasn't as much a sister as a second mother. Now, I'm married with a child, and they're both single girls, neither dating anyone right now. They just have a lot more in common right now with each other than either does with me. DH was very close to his siblings growing up and he still is, but they are both in the trades and DH is running a very successful editorial business, so there's some difficulty in relating there sometimes. I don't know if that's at all helpful....

Darrenswifey

I had one brother and one sister that lived with me.  They are 11 and 12 years older than me.  My brother and I (11 years older) get along great and always did.  I moved to Ohio because he's here.

My sister is a different story.  We fought a lot when I was a kid, and we tolerate each other now, although we lived together before I moved to Ohio with no issues. 

My dad is one of eight, and they are almost all the best of friends - there are 2 sisters that don't care for each other, but you'd never know it being around them.

My mom is the oldest of 5 and they all get along really well.

LittleHowell

I have two sisters and I'm in the middle.  My older sister is 2.5 years older than me, my younger sister is 6 years younger than me, so we have an 8.5 year age difference from oldest to youngest.  My sisters and I have been ridiculously close since we were born.  We're closer than ever now that we are adults. 

That being said, DH has one brother and they hated each other growing up and used to beat up on each other.  They are 4 years apart.  Now they love each other and get along famously, probably because we live here and his brother lives in Seattle.

Danica1

I'm one of 4 kids. My two sisters are 10 and 14 years older than me though, so we got along great. Although I was their guieny pig sometimes! LOL When we got older we realized we didn't have much in common. My oldest sister and I had a fight in 2003 and just started talking right before my mom died.

My brother is a year younger and we are really close. I feel like his kids are my kids. Growing up though we fought like crazy!!! He was a meanie and I had a big mouth. We were rarely nice to each other, unless of course we had to be. But as we got older we grew up and are close now.

wacissej2

I was a middle child. I had an older brother (3 yrs older) and younger brother (4 yrs younger). We never got along growing up. My two brothers would pal around a lot and gang up on me. So I was not a fan of my brothers. But once my older brother left for college we started getting along great. And once I left for college I started getting along with my younger brother. Now we're all really close and I remind them constantly how much they used to make me cry when we were little.

palmtreepatties

We have two good friends that are from large families.  One has 6 or 7 (or more?) brothers and sisters... there's so many that I can't remember all their names.  They are super close.  His oldest sister has a son the same age as his youngest brother.  I don't know how they were when they were young (DH grew up with him and used to go to their house all the time and had a blast) but now they are the closest family....  We have a second friend that may be 1 of 6.  Again they are super close.  There's a lot of rivalry from the boys but its all in good fun.  But I agree with a pp that said something about personalities.  Everyone from both families is pretty easy going and extremely loyal to each other.

michaelliz

I have 5 sisters and a brother. We all get along like the best of freinds. We have our moments but I could not imagine not having them in my life. We talk almost every day if not directly through one another. Growing up was a blast. While we did not have money you would have never known. We never wanted for anything it seemed. And the best part was you always had someone to play with.

Busty_Wench

I have two sisters and a brother.  My oldest sister is almost 7 years younger than me so growing up they were a major annoyance to me.  But now we're a little like the Portokalos family - always in each others' business.  If we go more than two days without talking to each other we have to call and catch up.  My sister hadn't been over for a visit in two weeks and when she finally came by she declared it had been "forever". 

I know a lot of people need their personal space but I love having a big close nosey family.  Really.  What could be better?

cassiehunt

I really like reading your stories. I'm on the fence about it, but I come from a small family so I wanted to hear the other side of it.
Thanks everyone!

tammiRN

ME!  I'm the youngest of 10 children.  My oldest sister is 51 (almost 52) and I am 32, to give you the age spread.

Oldest sis has a son that's three months younger than me, so he & I grew up together (she has other children too).  But she & the rest of us girls still do sister stuff together (shop, eat out, etc).

Next is brother, he's kind of quiet and I don't see him a lot, but he comes to all of the holiday functions so I see him then, and he's been known to stop by to visit occasionally.

Next is my sister who died just before Thanksgiving this past year.  We had all been pretty close to her.

Next is sister who shares a house with 2 other of our sisters.  They all get along well.  And we all get together pretty often to do things, or I'll just stop by to visit or she'll stop over.

Next is  a sister who I don't see a lot, she's pretty busy and lives oot, so we generally see her when she comes for holidays/family stuff.

Next is my only sister who lives out of state.  Last year was the first time that she had flown in for the holidays, her excuse always being the kids (yet they coud fly anywhere on vacation).  She calls to talk, but she's closer to the older girls than to us younger girls.  We all think it's a load of crap that it's okay for my Mom to travel to Colorado to see her, but that she doesn't feel the need to reciprocate (and can definitely afford it.)

Next is my brother.  We're all pretty close to him, and his wife is just like another sister to us all.  He got blessed with 3 girls before they decided they were done having kids.  Poor guy couldn't escape girls at all. 

Next is another sister, she is one who lives with 2 other sisters.  We all fought a lot over silly stuff when we were younger, but get along really well now. (we fought over the stay out of my clothes/make-up type stuff)

Next is the last sister above me.  We were the closest.  She even lived with me off & on during college, but she'd get homesick and move back down this way.  We lived together for a few years after I moved back down this way after my Dad died.  She now lives with 2 other sisters as above.  She comes over pretty often, and we talk quite a bit.

The house was ALWAYS full of people growing up.  Someone's friend was always over, and my parents had a lot of activities to attend (sports/music/etc) but they were always there.  We played together all the time when we were younger, and cheered each other on when we were older.  We fought sometimes, but never to really hurt each other.  We had the best rubberband wars. 

It's nice for the grandkids that live around here because they all grew up together and now hang out together.  We get the younger grandkids/great grandkids together for activities. (there are 19 grandkids, this one I'm preggers with is #20 and there are 8 great grandkids).

We still get together on every holiday.  My oldest sister hosts them at her house.