# What do you have in common with your siblings?



## moviequeen1 (Mar 25, 2018)

Those of you who have siblings,what do you have in common? Do you look alike,are you close etc.
My older sister Mary,who lives in England,we have never been close .When we were little, mom used to dress us alike,everybody thought we were twins,there is a yr 1/2 difference. When I started my growth spurt in 5th grade,Mary stayed the same height around 5'6' she looks more like dad.Our parents were tall around,5'11,were right handed as is Mary.
My younger brother,John lives in Rye,NY is 3 yrs younger than me. We started to have a closer relationship after mom died in 2003. We talk every Sun,when I decided to take early retirement in 2011,I talked to him about it.We are both tall,don't know if we're still 5'11,since we start to shrink as we get older LOL!.We are both left handed,look more like our mom. I spend every Thanksgiving with him and his family,sister in-law,Suzanne{also a lefty},my 4 nieces&nephews Sue


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## Mizzkitt (Mar 25, 2018)

I have only half siblings and I have absolutely nothing in common with them thank goodness, well other than sharing a parent.


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## Gary O' (Mar 25, 2018)

Let’s see…let’s seeeeee

*My big sister
*
short, 5’
I’m a tad under 6’
She’s now 6' under
I’m topside

*
My little brother 
*
is round
I’m rhomboidal

He was a mamma’s boy
I’m not sure they were even my family

We were never dressed like twins
Still, people couldn’t pull us apart
_(He enjoyed telling on me
I enjoyed beating on him)_

He wore little suits, with vests, and a fedora, with a feather
I wore had me ups

He stayed home into his twenties
I left home after learning to walk
Okay, that’s a stretch, mid-teens

He married a wealthy Chinese pug with lipstick
I married a poor, barefoot, gorgeous babe

He’s filthy rich
I’m filthy

He drives old, rebuilt corvettes
I drive old, beyond rebuilding, heaps

He lives in sprawling seasonal abodes
I abide in the woods

He’s very witty
I’m trying to keep my wits

Oh, we have a mutual but cordial disdain for each other

We chat ever six months or so
Exchanging cute barbs
It lasts less than a half hour
Filling in sporadic voids with weather reports, stuff like that
Then the uncomfortable silence

Hey, this has been fun
Didn’t know we had so much in common


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## Mizzkitt (Mar 25, 2018)

Glad to see I'm not alone Gary. My only conversation is one sided, he posts on Facebook, I read and roll my eyes at the lies


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## Aunt Bea (Mar 25, 2018)

Nothing other than our parents.

We are not a close family and we have no common interests.

We get along fine, no complaints but you will never see us hugging and kissing in the airport.


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## Giantsfan1954 (Mar 25, 2018)

Absolute zero.
Our parents died 2 years apart when I was in my early teens,I am the middle child with 2 brothers,the younger is an alcoholic with a toxic partner that has caused problems, the older is a wealthy man that puts very little value on family, has always been distant,we attempted a reunion in 2004,before my husband passed but it fizzled out pretty quick .


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## C'est Moi (Mar 25, 2018)

Not much in common.   I was "the baby" of the family; my sister is 10 years older and my brother is 5 years older.  We live in different states and don't see each other very often.   I love them both dearly but our lives are very different.   We all share a wise-ass sense of humor and so have a lot of laughs when we are together, which is nice.


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## helenbacque (Mar 25, 2018)

Only 2 half-sibs and nohing at all in common except Mother.


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## ProsperosDaughter (Mar 25, 2018)

Other than parents. . . hmm. . . I got nothing.


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## rkunsaw (Mar 25, 2018)

Nothing in common at all. My brother and sister are both liberals and also with strong religious beliefs. I'm a very conservative atheist.

My brother who is much younger never have any contact at all. But my sister (3 years older) and I get along fine and are always joking with each other on facebook.


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## IKE (Mar 25, 2018)

To stepsisters in Wisconsin from my mom's second marriage (last seen in 1981) and two stepsisters in Indiana from my dad's second marriage (last seen in 1977)......we have diddly squat in common.


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## JFBev (Mar 25, 2018)

I have 6 brother and 4 sisters, all from one set of parents -- all the sisters voices sound like each other, same with the brothers. We can tell each other apart on the phone, but non-family friends have always commented about that! Other than that, our most common traits are a goofy sense of humor and a love of travel.


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## debbie in seattle (Mar 26, 2018)

My parents, otherwise, nada.


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## Cap'nSacto (Mar 26, 2018)

I have an older brother and a younger sister. We're pretty close. Though we live within 40 miles of each other, we usually only visit over the phone; once a week at least. I feel closer to my brother than my sister, but she feels closer to me than to him. We don't get together very often - always on our mother's birthday, but otherwise just for the funerals and weddings of immediate family members.

We love each other very much.


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## Capt Lightning (Mar 27, 2018)

Nothing at all - we were a family of 'only children' with virtually nothing in common.  I haven't seen or spoken to my brother or sister for around 20 years. They are more or less strangers to me.  Mrs. L is a genuine 'only child'.


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## hollydolly (Mar 27, 2018)

We were very close as children...fought like tigers amongst ourselves, but all of us stood together as one against an outside enemy.. My brother and I only a year apart were always dressed alike as toddlers, and we were often mistaken for twins..

...but since my mother died when we were teens, and the youngest only 10 years old....I held them together as the eldest girl still at home...but the 4 of us stayed as a unit until my younger brother who;d always had anger problems since a child  went off the rails and ended up in prison in his teens 

 . My father married the witch from hell, and within 3 years of my mothers' death the siblings started to split , by which time the others all had extreme emotional problems. I married and moved away from them all to another part of the country..they followed me one by one,  as if I was their mother and I nurtured them even in their 20's and even 30's , but their various  problems lay deep within them, beyond my help, they caused so many serious issues  for me over the years, I had to finally cut the cord years ago..even though they'd all been married and had children of their own, they just had become so toxic, it was affecting my health trying to do everything for them..so now, there's is no relationship . I occasionally see my youngest sister maybe every few years, but it's short and and I keep it like that. ...

I do have  relationships with some of their children tho'..my nephews and nieces who are all adults now with their own children.


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## Capt Lightning (Mar 27, 2018)

I've come upon cases where one person holds the family together and when they go, things fall apart.  I think in my case, we were born different and it was inevitable that we would go our separate ways. My mother was the last common link.  We didn't fall out or anything - we just followed different paths and each enjoyed a measure of success in different ways. I usually get a Christmas card from my sister, but that's it.  I don't think she sees our brother except by chance.


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## Aunt Bea (Mar 27, 2018)

Capt Lightning said:


> *I've come upon cases where one person holds the family together and when they **go**, things fall apart.* I think in my case, we were born different and it was inevitable that we would go our separate ways. My mother was the last common link. We didn't fall out or anything - we just followed different paths and each enjoyed a measure of success in different ways. I usually get a Christmas card from my sister, but that's it. I don't think she sees our brother except by chance.



My paternal grandmother was the iron fist in the velvet glove that held our family together.  

Some obeyed her out of love and some obeyed her out of fear but they all obeyed her and they all missed her when she died.


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## Victor (Mar 27, 2018)

Nothing at all and glad. They live  routine repetitive lives (as most of us)
and they know we have nothing in common except parents who are gone.
. Mutual hostility, hate and or indifference from a loveless family.


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## ClassicRockr (Mar 27, 2018)

Nothing in common with either of our families. My older (a few years) brother, has a totally different personality than I do and hates computers. My wife siblings are completely different than her. 

We talk to them on the phone, but very, very seldom see any of them.


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## Cap'nSacto (Mar 27, 2018)

I posted earlier; I said my siblings and I are close (as opposed to estranged). But the question was What do we have in common?

Our heritage. Probably the same deep-seated fears, doubts and anger. After all we grew up with the same parents, under one roof, sat around the same table at dinnertime, and attended the same churches and schools for a while.

But the three of us are very different, and we seldom talk about the past - what made us fearful, where our self-doubt and anger came from. We don't ask each other about it because we know the answer, and talking about it won't change anything. But it is interesting that despite the same fears and hurts, and good times, too, all happening to us under the same roof, we all turned out so differently.

I can say the same about my own kids. The two older boys have the most in common - very similar jobs and interests - but they rarely see or talk to each other. The second and third sons used to be very close, until they weren't any longer. And my youngest one, my daughter, moved as far away as she could, and only talks to her siblings via the occasional email and random holiday visit.

They are four very different people, on the outside at least. Yet they all have a common heritage, common upbringing, many common childhood experiences. Obviously, they all processed their experiences differently, but they will always have them in common.


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## moviequeen1 (Mar 28, 2018)

Thanks to all who have replied to my post,interesting reading about siblings
The other thing I have in common with my sister,Mary is, we both like classical and,choral music.I've been a huge fan of British choral composer,John Rutter for yrs,own 4 of his CD's. She has told me in past she has attended couple choral music concerts in England where she lives.
My brother,John and I have followed in our parents footsteps by being regular church goers at our respective churches,do volunteer work there Sue


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## jujube (Mar 28, 2018)

I'm close to my sisters but we have very little in common, especially the youngest one who was only seven when I left home.  But that's OK....._variety is the spice of life! _


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## Lethe200 (Mar 28, 2018)

Well....my mom had 5 marriages and my father had 2, so all mine are half-siblings.

- Oldest sister: died of ovarian cancer at age 38.
- Middle sister: nothing much in common, either physically, socially, or otherwise. But her kids are terrific and we're good friends with her daughter, friendly but not super-close with her son. His three little kids are noisy little rugrats but cute (we're not big on kids, LOL)
- me
- Youngest brother: we're pretty close. He's somewhat on the competitive side, probably not surprising since he's so much younger than his sisters (I'm 14 yrs older than he is, so we had all left home by the time he was born). He's had a couple of marriages and finally seems settled and happy. He's in Southern CA so we only see him once or twice a year.

- I have an older brother from my father's first marriage. He isn't related to any of the other sibs except thru me. He is so much older than I am, he was kicked out of the house when I was 7 so I honestly don't remember even thinking about him very much as a child. We have nothing much in common at all, and haven't been in contact for decades. However, he had 2 daughters and I'm in regular contact with one of them, who now lives on the East Coast but spent her senior year of HS here in San Francisco, where we saw her regularly. 

She and her sister came out to visit last October. It was pretty amusing trying to explain to a friend their relationship to my sister and her kids/grandkids, because it was clear they all knew one another fairly well. "But you two aren't related to them?" she kept asking.

"Nope. Our father was her sister's brother, but only through marriage. It's just we all call ourselves aunts, uncles, and cousins! But....we're really not. Except thru her - " pointing to me. "Because she's everybody's half-sister."

Yes, our family tree is a little....ummm, convoluted.


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