Straw Poll - Brothers And Sisters

[ILostHer]

My sister is two years older, she has lovely house, career, 2.4 children, car, money, good looks and sanity!

But I am more interesting ha ha ha

[Disaresta]

I'm the oldest out of four boys. The second to youngest is mentally retarded if it makes any difference.

[yosimitepeg]

I am the youngest. I have a sister who is 11 months older than me and a brother who is 7 minutes older than me.

[Narcissa]

I'm the youngest therefore the most spoilt! Actually i have a half brother and sister. So i'm my dads only child

[skakitty]

I'm an only child. I have a half sister, but she was born when i was 14 so we are not close at all.

[Georgie1981]

I'm the eldest; I have a brother who is 3 years younger than me.

[wordsmithy]

Related question:

To youngest children, or younger children, when you were growing up you found that you were worried about more (safety-wise) by your caregivers than your siblings, you grew up anxious and hypervigilant of danger?

That you now have a more anxious personality (maybe to the point of an anxiety disorder OCD, GAD, panic disorder etc.) as an adult than your siblings?

I think my mothers hyper-anxiety about safety as child has contributed to my anxiety disorders, and I wonder if anyone can relate to me, or see any truth in it?

[Forbidden75]

I am the eldest, I have one sister who is 31 yrs old and a half sister who is soon to be 12 yrs old.

[fakethislife]

No siblings for me, thank heavens!

[Carol-E]

I'm the youngest of 5 or 6 depending on your point of view

1st - Sister 10 yrs older

2nd - brother (died at 2 or 3)

3rd - brother 5 yrs older

4th - brother 3 yrs older

5th - brother 2 yrs older

6th - Me the runt of the litter!

[PlasticInsanity]

The oldest child. My sister's younger by 2 years.

I was actually encouraged to do better because I was the older sibling, so I was given higher standards of what was expected of me compared to my sister. I think she acted out when she got older because my mom gave me more attention. She was the favorite of my dad, though.

[miss.smiff]

i'm the eldest out of 4, a sister and 2 brothers

[galupy]

youngest of 2

[piuma]

i was the yongest for 8 years then my bro and sis came along xx

[Evangeline]

I am one of 11 children. I am child #4, so I suppose that makes me a middle child. I don't really know why, but we have kind of ended up bunched into 3 groups that are close with each other, except for one of my older brothers who has distanced himself from the whole family. In these groups I am "one of the older ones," and am closest with my other 2 older brothers and twin sister.

It was a pretty dysfunctional set-up. My parents loved babies and always lavished attention on the new baby, but then lost interest by the age of about 2 and started trying for the next baby. Every baby got their turn as the favoured child, but after that no one was favoured and we were mainly left to fend for ourselves. My older brothers looked after me and in turn I looked after younger ones as they came along.

Most of us older ones do seem to have difficulties with depression and low self-esteem, and got into a lot of trouble as children and teenagers. I seem to be worst affected but I don't know why. I don't think I have faced anything more stressful than the others. The middle and younger ones seem to be pretty much OK, perhaps because there were older ones to look out for them and keep them out of trouble.

[successful_workthru]

Related question:

To youngest children, or younger children, when you were growing up you found that you were worried about more (safety-wise) by your caregivers than your siblings, you grew up anxious and hypervigilant of danger?

That you now have a more anxious personality (maybe to the point of an anxiety disorder OCD, GAD, panic disorder etc.) as an adult than your siblings?

I think my mothers hyper-anxiety about safety as child has contributed to my anxiety disorders, and I wonder if anyone can relate to me, or see any truth in it?

I felt that I was not allowed to grow up as the youngest. My mum even recently admitted that they kept me little.

I feel ill-equipped to lead an adult life, and find responsibitys too daunting.

I have four older siblings and feel like they treat me in a subordinate way, not allowing me to express a difference of opinion, or never listening to me.

It's been this way all of my life.

I grew up not being able to identify when people are acting 'out-of-order' with me, as I was never allowed to challenge when my boundaries were crossed.

When I know people are out of order, sometimes I do not react and just take the shit, but I am trying to challenge it now.

When I tried to challenge it before in the family, I just got told to get lost, or to stop moaning or called insulting names like selfish bitch.

My family are not aware of the effect this has had on me, and are not ready in themselves to hear what effect it has had on me.

Sometimes, I feel suicide is the only answer to make them aware, but then, I would either be entrenching them further in denial, or causing them to feel so guilty that they go into a depression.

I feel I cannot win.

The sad thing is, my family think all is well within the family, but they refuse to look at the faulty parts saying that moving on is the way to go.

We cannot move on unless we have healed from our pain.

We have to find our own ways of moving on, by realising that the family are the ones with the issues and not us.

[Barbara A]

I'm an only child.

[WedtoDeath]

I'm an only child, and I have always hated it. I was insanely envious of my friends and relatives who had siblings--to be honest, I still am.

Being an "only" means that ALL your parents' hopes, dreams, and expectations are focused on YOU. WAAAYYYYY too much pressure to succeed.

Also, invariably when anyone learned I was an only, their immediate response was, "Ooohhhh, I bet your parents spoiled you rotten!" This from total strangers with whom I've barely exchanged a single word--IT IS INFURIATING!!! How can you possibly judge someone (esp. in such a negative light) based on a single fact?! This, my friends, is called prejudice, it isn't fun or funny, and it's hurtful.

I do realize that not all siblings get along well (if at all), but still I would choose to have brothers and sisters. Odds are, you could get along well with at least a couple of them, and that would be so terrific. My dad developed Alzheimer's in 2003 (he died from it in 2008), and my mom and I were his only caretakers (I do have cousins but they live 250+ miles away)--IF ONLY we could have called on my other siblings--even if only one!--to give my mom and me a break. By the time my poor father died my mom and I were both on the verge of collapse.

And finally--I am single and childless, my mom will be 84 next month, and when she is gone I will have no immediate family left. I wish I could die when she does.

Being an only child is a curse. :grrr:

[ArtMatters]

I'm the youngest of two-- though I'm fairly certain my older sister also has bpd hers is just undaignosed and presents differently i.e. I have more emotional stuff and the sh etc, abandonment issues/self esteem issues, more anxiety/panic, etc...... where as she is more dissociative and does the thing where she puts people up on a pedistal one day and then hates them the next, has intimacy issues etc, and seems to have more identity issues than me in my opinion i.e. she went from being a vegitarian artist bisexual more similar to me (well I'm not a vegitarian lol)-- to being an accountant, I think she might even have stopped identifying as bisexual and is leaning more towards straight, cares mostly about material wealth and is dating some guy who wears man jewlery lolol

[Sparko]

Oldest, my younger bro has brain damage