When you have a lot of siblings, you always do something to feel special.
We had to go to bed by 8 P.M. My siblings and I would often play cards under the bed-sheets. But we would get caught and then were made to practise harder. My father would say, ‘You need to work even more if you aren’t tired enough to go to sleep.’
There was a woman in Tunisia called Madame Pinot. She was a midwife and had helped in the birth of my siblings and me. I assisted her. I helped women give birth to a lot of babies when I was very young.
I have three younger siblings, so the four of us were outside all the time after school playing games, making up games. My sister made up a game called ‘roof ball.’ We’d play that constantly. She always beat me in it, and it made me very mad. But we were outside all the time.
I have a sister, in particular, who’s 13 years older than me. So growing up and watching her – watching her go to work, especially – was hugely influential to me. As the youngest, with a sibling that’s a decade older, I had certain things that I would go to her about instead of my mother.
I do have siblings, but I don’t have any brothers.
My siblings were pretty far apart in age, so I sort of grew up as an only child.
An ordinary life used to look something like this: born into a growing family, you help rear your siblings, have the first of your own half-dozen or even dozen children soon after you’re grown, and die before your youngest has left home.
If you want to do really important things in life and big things in life, you can’t do anything by yourself. And your best teams are your friends and your siblings.
Although people have different perceptions, I personally define myself as a mother. My life has been revolving around children since a young age. Before my marriage, I was involved with my siblings’ kids, so I can be called a mother figure in the family.
My father, who is deeply spiritual and religious, always stressed that my siblings and I remain true to our Indian roots.
From a young age, I wanted to differentiate myself from my older siblings.
The greatest thing about siblings is you constantly have someone putting you in check; there’s no room to get delusional about yourself.
I have five siblings, so my mom was always pregnant, and she would wear these dungarees that looked so cool.
There were no good schools in my village. So my family moved so that my siblings and I would get a better education.
When I was about six, I saw my elder siblings play chess and pestered my mother into teaching me. Very soon, I was beating everyone at home, and they thought it would be good to join a club. So my sister would take me to the Tal chess club on Thursdays and weekends.
Mysteries and thrillers are not the same things, though they are literary siblings. Roughly put, I would say the distinction is that mysteries emphasize motive and psychology whereas thrillers rely more heavily on action and plot.
For generations, minor-league baseball has been seen as the scrappier, sometimes seedier, counterpart to its big-league sibling. Games are often cloaked in strange and sometimes awkward theme nights. Some of the mascots are ragged or downright bizarre. The ballparks are smaller and filled with fewer fans.
I was always told I had to be an example to my siblings. I was told to toe the line. So I had to behave.
There’s something about having a sibling that you know will always stick with you.
Your parents leave you too soon and your kids and spouse come along late, but your siblings know you when you are in your most inchoate form.
I’m the baby for sure. My siblings are looking out for me, making sure I’m not doing something stupid. They are making sure my head is set straight and that I’m a good person outside of skating and inside of it, too.
My father earned his citizenship by serving in the Army during World War II. He devoted his life to caring for our nations veterans at a VA hospital in Buffalo, New York. That desire to serve fellow Americans propelled my four siblings into medical careers, too.
Sibling rivalry was, and still is to this day, rampant in my family. We were all competing for my parents’ divided attention.
I grew up in a small town in Alabama, and there wasn’t much in the way of entertainment, so like our older siblings before us, we drove our pickup trucks out into the hayfield and lit a bonfire.
The funny thing is that everyone thinks I’m naturally dark because all of my siblings are, but I’m naturally dirty blond.
I grew up in northwest London on a council estate. My parents are Irish immigrants who came over here when they were very young and worked in menial jobs all their lives, and I’m one of many siblings.
All of my friends who have younger siblings who are going to college or high school – my number one piece of advice is: You should learn how to program.
I suspect that among parents or siblings of a person with autism there are higher rates of talents in systemizing.
I don’t have any siblings, but I have best friends that I have known since kindergarten that I’m protective of. If they call me and tell me someone was mean to them at school – I want to go to school and be mean to that person and try to stand up for them.
My little siblings keep me grounded. I’m a kid at heart.
In a Polynesian family it’s not always about yourself, you’ve got to look after your parents and your younger siblings.
My dad was very much a Pan-Africanist and instilled in me and my siblings a want for that knowledge.
The idea of community and helping others has always been a part of who I am. Growing up, my parents always made sure that my siblings and I were doing our part to serve our local community.
I don’t even call them fans. I don’t like that. They’re literally just a part of my life; they’re a part of my family. I don’t think of them as on a lower level than me. I don’t think I’m anything but equal to all of them. So yeah, they’re basically all of my siblings.
I started listening to a lot of Jimi Hendrix and Neil Young when I was 8 or 9 years old – I had siblings that gave me good music instead of the crap that was on the radio in the ’90s.
My parents were liberal intellectuals but even they expected me to stay at home and look after my younger siblings and do the housework.
There was a time when my siblings could have walked up to me and we could have had a conversation and I wouldn’t have recognized them as my blood.
Music was in the air when I was growing up. My siblings Katy, Dave and Phil were musical; my dad worked in inner-city New York where a musical revolution was taking place – folk music, rock n’ roll, gospel music. My sister taught me to sing. My brothers taught me to play.
I’ve always felt very insecure being around in-laws, even my siblings – like the guy who made a bad decision, or the guy who would never just fess up that I’m not good enough to make it, or I don’t have what it takes.
I’ve always had this interest in sibling relationships because I don’t have any siblings. I’m completely a product of the one-child policy in China, so I always kind of wished that I had an older brother or a younger brother or sister just to have that bond, so I find myself constantly writing about that relationship.
Because of the earlier loss of the two elder siblings, my brother and I lived a very pampered and protected life. Nursemaids kept constant watch. With my parents busy at dinner parties and social events, we only met them as if for a daily royal audience.
Like most kids born in China back in the 1980s, I didn’t have any siblings. I spent my childhood in Chengdu and had the privilege of being both a boy and a girl.
As a child in South Carolina, I spent summers like so many children – sitting on my grandparents’ back porch with my siblings, spitting watermelon seeds into the garden or, even worse, swallowing them and trembling as my older brother and sister spoke of the vine that was probably already growing in my belly.
I was the first of my siblings born here in the United States.
The biggest piece is my family… From watching films like The Godfather on our dining room wall, to having a great relationship with my sibling. Or going on weekend trips with our cousins to the beach and eating all day… it’s been a crazy childhood; a ‘bohemian one’.
Poor parenting may be reflected in poor sibling relationships.
I am from L.A., my siblings are from L.A., but both my parents are from Guatemala, and I have a lot of family members from Mexico.
My siblings and I were raised to honor and cherish those who serve. They are, as my father said, America’s most precious resource. I still believe in that vision of the American military. I want my three daughters to believe in it as well.
I can’t look at people’s wrists. Something about the veins makes me weak. My siblings used to torture me with that because they knew it was the thing I couldn’t handle. They would stick their wrists in my face.
I had three other siblings, and I was the youngest of the lot.
I loved performing; I was always trying to impress my siblings by being a clown. I think that came from being the runt of the litter.
If you have, especially with siblings, something like the competition for mom’s affection, it just never goes away.
My siblings and I grew up on Indian food. My mother, though of Slovenian descent, learned to cook Indian delicacies for my father after their wedding.
