Childhood sibling rivalry

My sister and I had a phase of fighting with biting and scratching - I'm so glad I had boys!

I didn't want a brother, but got one. I called him Pauline, because I wanted a sister, but, if one of us got into trouble, we stood together through thick and thin.

My younger sister was very shy and not strong physically so used to depend on me in all social situations and, generally, to be her protector.

Come teenage years, she lost her shyness and began to run her own life on her own lines and there were some almighty spats as she threw off my tendency to run her life for her, but it didn't last long. As with Auntieflo we stood together through thick and thin

I cannot remember either of us ever playing unkind tricks on each other or anyone else. I have never liked practical joking. I have always considered it a form of bullying as the 'joke' depends on the humiliation of another individual and I would never do that to anyone, least of all my sister.

I was the youngest of five with 5 years between me and the fourth child so I think the age difference meant there wasn't much rivalry and we definitely didn't play dirty tricks on each other. However I do remember being pinned down by two of my brothers while the third one tickled me which wasn't very nice!!

Growing up, my younger sister always used to hide one shoe of a pair from me. It was always the left-footed shoe that went missing too - I'm still not sure why!

I was horrible to my twin brother when I think back now,I used to tell him he was found under the stairs as ladies didn;t have 2 babies at the same time,we are best friends now.

I couldn’t stand my brother when we were children, tolerated him for my mums sake when we became adults, never have anything to do with him now she’s dead. You can’t chose your family...........I am lucky enough to have some wonderful lifelong friends.

I’m the same as you Catgrandma my brother was a mean kicking ,scratching, biting boy, a miserable adult, I also tolerated him for my DMs sake as she thought the world of him. Now they are both dead.
I’ve no friends either, just a loving family.

My brother (four years my senior) and I just ignored each other most of the time. I regarded him as much older, and we had nothing in common. We never went to the same school. He was sometimes very nasty to me - I think he was jealous.

We continued to ignore each other as adults, but each knew what the other was doing via our parents. He came to my wedding and I went to his, but that was about it. After childhood, we always lived at opposite ends of the country.

Since our parents died we have kept in touch, more or less, but mostly via his wife whom I like very much. He is over 80 now, and it was only recently I realised he wouldn’t live for ever. I realised that although we have little to do with each other even now, I do expect him to be there.

When asked to feed the neighbours rabbit while they were on holiday, I told my sister it was a 'killer rabbit' and we took a chair and a home made whip (string on a stick) just in case it turned nasty............

My twin is bossy and loud. When we were about seven we talked about about being afraid of the dark, both saying we weren't. In order to 'prove it' we were to take it in turns to get into mum's wardrobe and the other would shut the door, just for a few seconds.
Being quieter I don't know how I managed to get her to go in first, however I shut the door, turned the handle. After about 10 seconds there was a little knock from inside, "You can let me out now," but no matter how I tried I just couldn't open the door. Whoops.
Mum had gone shopping (on foot, only three streets away) so I ran to find her. As she approached the front door I called, "Mum, help, R---- is stuck in the wardrobe!"
Her stunned reply, "Well, whatever is she doing in there?" She came up and freed her. Then of course R---- said, "Now it's your turn." "Not on your Nelly" I insisted. It was one of the few times I ever got my own back on her.
She's still bossy and loud but I answer her back now.
This little incident still makes me laugh.

My mother took to her bed with what they then called a nervous breakdown after losing a baby when I was ten, I had an older brother who hid himself away and two younger siblings, the youngest just two. I was expected to get everyone up for school and cook breakfast and then a lady arrived to mind the two year old while the rest of us were at school. I had a lot of responsibility but enjoyed the rôle, being a bit of an organiser (bossy?) and this continued for years. The two year old was 11 when I left home for the big city and I missed her terribly. Decades later I discovered that she harboured huge resentment that as the youngest she got told what to do for years by her 8 years older sister and there was a volcanic eruption which caught me completely unawares. Now in our 70s we have got over it but it is still the elephant in the room. Sad to remember.

There were five and a half years between my sister and I and we did not get on at all well until she was about fourteen. She goaded me and we fought like cats and dogs. My parents should have intervened but they were always out working or socialising.

When my sister became a teenager we got on very well and I think, mum then being divorced, I played something of a mother role to her and was responsible and a good influence. At any rate she followed me into teaching after a period of fun and games. We were the best of friends at this time.

When she married my sister reverted to envy and spikiness. She found a MIL who was clearly more competent than our mother and a SIL who was the sister who never knew her in her worse years and with whom she could start again. She dumped the pair of us, emotionally speaking. I dread the 'venting' emails (her word) she sends when she needs a scapegoat.

My brother, six years younger than me, was my playmate used to play barber's cut his hair with nail scissors, he quietly sat and let me. As we grew older he became the person who, looked out for me, I miss him dreadfully.

My sister and I used to physically fight and bicker. The fighting stopped when we both threw heavy books at each other and realised we could really hurt each other. However, we were not very close then or now. My brother used to do things like dropping a worm down the neck, but we got on better and played well together. Same sort of imagination. My sister was very practical, tidy and organised. I was not! Sharing a bedroom caused a lot of friction.

My brother and I always fought he even tied me to tree once. We are very close now we are older and laugh about our childhood days.

My late sister never spoke to me.
Throughout our lives she did not once speak to me.
She was six when I was born.

She died at fifty six.

The rest of the family were treated as if they were dirt on her shoe. Looked down her nose with disdain at all of us.

Our now eighty seven year old mother went through hip operations, knee operations, spinal surgery.
My sister lived a few minutes from mothers house but refused to help her .
I'm 6 hours drive away.

Massive chip on her shoulder about .....well everything actually.

I'm with Catgrandma too. My older brother was horrible to me when we were young. Hitting, punching, pulling out my hair and constantly being verbally nasty calling me names. I think he was attempting to cover his own fears by bullying me.
I still keep in touch with him for my parents sake rather than because I want to. Also very aware that he has no other relatives, and few friends, whereas I have OH, children and grandchildren, and some very good lifelong friends. I'm very lucky.

My older sister was always on the mean side - and as we got older the differences grew - my brother was given licence to misbehave and break things that belonged to me because he had a brain injury at birth that left him with the reading/writing skills of a 6 year old, although he was brilliant with mathematics. I don't keep in touch with either - although my son keeps in contact with my sister. I do keep in contact with my much older half sister(who is in her 80's) though and have met both her sons and their partners, hoping to meet her daughter, who is a few months older than me, soon too.

My sister was three and a half years younger than me, and we loved each other until she was about four and then we started quarrelling all the time. If anyone had asked as then, I certainly would have said I hated her, and I think she would have said the same.

As adults we realised that we had picked up on the fact that our parents weren't getting on well with each other at that time, without realising that that was what was wrong.

As teenagers we formed an unstable alliance against our mum, who sometimes played one of us off against the other.

Once we were fully grown up and away from home, we sat down one day and discussed what had gone wrong when we were children. I was completely shattered when my little sister said that she had always felt I was the only person who really loved her for who she was. I felt horribly guilty that when we were small I don't think I felt like that about her.

Happily, we were very good friends as adults until her far too early death aged 60.

I also fought with my older brother.When my Mum told me she was having a baby when I was 7, I so wanted a sister, she woke me in the night to come and look at my baby brother.I was so disappointed and was horrible to him,we became close for a while when older,but he turned to drugs and committed suicide aged 23, I felt so guilty and wished I’d been nicer to him.I did know a girl called Brian ?,her Dad had wanted a Boy,I think that’s an awful thing to do,she must have had to explain herself to everyone she met.

We weren't allowed to fight, so we learned how to scream silently, as we pummeled the hell out of each other.

Gmelon that is so sad your big sister never spoke to you. What a damaged person she was. So sad.