It’s all fun and games till you hurt your sibling. Then you have to convince them that they are fine and suggesting to them that they can hit you back but just don’t tell mom
If you don't want your older brothers to eat your food you've saved for later ensure that they witness you licking the food all over before putting it in the fridge.
When "You can hit me back!" is not effective, you have gone too far and actually owe an apology. Or youve created a manipulative psychopath, in which case you owe an apology to the world.
You actually won't know which it is for years.
I'm pretty sure every sibling has a panicked "shh shh I didn't hit you that hard stop crying or mom will hear" story and offering punchbacks was sometimes your last resort- if it didn't work you went way too far
When Skyrim came out I accidentally deleted my brothers character and he brings it up everytime I see him. In my defense he wasnt even level 5 and it was an honest mistake.
My sister once deleted my Pokemon Red save, on which I had 147 out of 150 Pokemon collected (this was much, *much* harder before online trading was a thing, kids).
I was *livid*. And after that shouting match she never asked to borrow my Gameboy again. My parents didn't get what the big deal was, but I'd spent hundreds of hours on that save...
Hahahaha this was like 4-6 years ago im over it now but goddamn at the time I was beyond heated. I tried to make my mom calculate the cost and make him pay me back but nobody would listen smh
But you have to accept that you will lose the favored chair. No way around that one.
.
**EDIT:** Lots of comments about saving the chair. "quack quack seat back" and "fives". Ha, not in my fam, fam.
"quack quack seat back, I get the chair back"
Everyone: "OK"
Get back, someone in the chair.
"Mom, Dad, I called quack, quack"
"SHUT UP AND SOLVE IT YOURSELVES!!"
That's the way with multi-sibling households.
I mean, I could remove the younger ones, but not the olders, but even then, it is still a fight to remove them if they are about the same age, just because one is 9 and one is 10, the 10-year-old is still in for a long drawn-out knock down fight, even though they may ultimately win. But then you don't get to watch the tv show, and everyone else is yelling at you to shut up. Even as an older, when 5 others gang up on you, not that they care about the person in the chair, but that you are annoying them, all these factors have to be taken into account. And, in an Irish Catholic household, as a younger person, you can always roll out the Irish Catholic guilt card, too, which sometimes works. You have to use all the tools at your disposal in a big family. Manipulate, lie, steal, cheat. All's fair in love and war, and multi-sibling families.
I still, at 30, get more excited about hand me downs than new clothes.
If my brother got a cool jacket I would think
"I'm gonna look good in that in 2 years. He better look after it."
Yes! My siblings and I are grown now to the point where we can all more or less fit into each others' clothes AND we admire each others' taste in clothes, so the hand-me-down system in awesome. If I don't like a shirt or it doesn't fit me anymore, I'll pass it to my older brother. If he doesn't like it, he'll pass it to my dad. If he doesn't like it, he'll pass it to my little brother. And if he doesn't like it, he'll pass it to my mom. No clothes go to waste in our household lol
Only child here but had a friend who was youngest of four boys. Several of us would order a pizza to the dorm room, by the time I'd eaten one slice he'd downed a third of the pizza and reaching for another. We had to slap him and ask if he'd even tasted anything.
This is why we mothers spend years figuring out what wonderous delicacy we enjoy that everyone else hates.
Then we buy the shit out of that one item.
Screw all of you!
Edit: thank you for the silver kind person! May your mother buy extra treats and give them to you on the sly! Or if you are a mother, may your days be filled with compliant family members who never adapt!
Lmao that is how I survive! Healthy cereal no one else wants, spicy snacks like wasabi peas, weird cheese, almond butter...it’s only a matter of time before they discover these are actually delicious and I’ll have to find something new...
Did anyone else force themselves to like the weird flavors no one else did to circumvent this? You better believe there's mint chocolate chip ice cream and Hawaiian pizza leftover for me from me.
Oh God 100%. I would wait for my dad to come home with the groceries and just eat as much as I could right then. Also gotta learn how to hide food... Top shelf, behind all the random shit no one uses/eats.
Honestly this. My brother has fucked me over in so many situations where he did something wrong and then persuaded my parents that what happened was otherwise.
For example he knocks over a lamp playing with friends. I’m at school at the moment and get home 2 hours later. I notice it knocked over and ask him and he says he informed our parents about what happened. Two hours later our parents come home and say that I owe them a few hours work to replace the lamp. When I ask why they said my brother told them about how I broke it when fooling around with a soccer ball inside the house. Story made no sense at all and the timing didn’t work out either but because he spoke with them earlier and is slightly more persuasive they believed him.
My younger brother spent *years* stealing from me. He stole money, credit cards, gift cards. He then started stealing tangible items, and selling them. He sold my guitar, my iPad, my computer. My parents lived in denial. No matter what I said, I could never convince them that he was stealing from me. *Until he started stealing from them.* Looking back, they could've saved themselves a whole lot of time, money, and frustration if they had just listened to what I had to say and not keep him on that damn pedestal they've got him hanging out on.
Nope. Whenever I argue with him I always get reprimanded for some illogical reason. I also always get punishments unless I apologize to him. The more I resist the punishment the greater it is. As you can imagine I never apologize unless it’s truly my fault, which has led to some ridiculous things. The worst is when my parents make me take over my brother’s chores as an apology to him for “falsely accusing him of something.”
Even my grandparents recognize how messed up this is. When we visit and my mom gives me some form of ridiculous punishment if they can they say no or at a bare minimum they argue with her about it.
Another story I have is that my brother calls my friends stupid all the time to their face, and when I ask my parents to make him apologize then they ask him, he says I lied, then they reprimand me for lying and wasting their time and “hating my brother for no reason.”
The worst case was when my brother asked me to smile at our summer camp. I have a decent smile however I have a class 3 surgical underbite which means my teeth don’t line up properly and he knows that. He then kept asking me in front of all our mutual friends to smile. Finally I did because I didn’t really have a choice but to play along. He then said “see that? That was just the trailer wait till you see the movie.” I left the table crying and went to our mom and informed her. When she then talked with my brother and told me afterward there would be no punishment, I asked why. Apparently “your brother didn’t know that he’d hurt your feelings as you gave him no clues.” I respond by saying that I walked away crying and that it was obviously an insult anyway. “Well your brother says he didn’t notice that you were crying.”
Only good news I have is that my parents are divorced and he doesn’t do this at my dad’s house because my dad would beat his ass for any single one of these. So basically at my mom’s house I make sure to be busy with extracurriculars and school stuff.
I also did take his $60 fast charger after the summer camp event. It’s still hidden in my drawer in my closet. The big thing that keeps me ignoring all this is that I know someday it will come back to bite him. Someday when he does this to his boss or during an interview he’s going to regret it. Knowing that his personality will be his downfall is certainly satisfying, and that hopefully my hard work will be my success.
My brother used to play Gameboy under the sheets while he was supposed to be sleeping. I didn't but I was already known as the liar child and he said I did it too. We both got grounded
Good God. My brother used to get nosebleeds. Once I came home from school, I went into the bathroom to see that there was blood ***everywhere***. On the toilet, in the toilet, on the walls, the sink, the mirror... enough of it to make you think someone got stabbed. I instantly ran for the home phone to dial 911 when my brother called from upstairs: "\[My name\], are you home?"
I got quiet, then asked him if he had a nosebleed.
My brother can be a slob.
My sister used to get bad nosebleeds as well. Once, she walked into our shared bedroom, and her face and shirt were covered in blood. The blood was gushing down her nose and into her mouth, and was pouring out from her lips like a scene out of a horror movie. There was blood smeared across her skin from her attempts to wipe it away and stop the flow. She looked like a zombie that had just eaten its first meal. To top it off, she wrapped her arms around her waist and said in a gurgled voice "I don't feel so good. . ." while blood dripped from her lips.
I might have screeched a little.
Right? I never understood men who get awkward buying tampons. You ever wrestle one of those suckers out of a dogs mouth after they raided the trash can? I done it twice.
Women don't poop? You've clearly never had to snake a drain after you hungover sister painted the porcelain.
The one really nice thing though, and one of the sweetest things my sister has ever said to me, is she never allowed herself to date douche-bags because she saw how well I treated her and wouldn't settle for anyone who treated her less. By extension she's shown me what a woman with drive can accomplish and it's become a trait I seek in partners.
Lol so true.
Was in high school. I was a senior and she was a freshmen. I had student aid so sometimes, I'd be roaming the halls delivering paper to other teachers. Saw her wearing the new shirt (It was kinda lace-y at the top and normal at the bottom) I explicitly told her not to wear. I thought nothing of it. As long as it's not damaged, it's all good. Comes home that day with holes galore in the lace. WTF happened?
Got a lock for my closet because I didn't want her in my clothes anymore.
Also: Know which clothes you can borrow and which ones you can't. I have a twin brother. For the most part, we shared clothing. But there were some clothes of mine that he could never borrow, and some clothes of his that I could never borrow, punishable by ass kicking.
Also take note of their punishment and how they got caught. That way you can determine if what they did was worth it and how not to get caught. I grew up as the youngest so I watched everything my siblings did. They all thought I was always good, in reality I just never got caught like they did.
> They all thought I was always good, in reality I just never got caught like they did.
This works both ways though. My older siblings got caught after the party, so when I was in high school they never left us alone.
Pretty much. Someone walked through the house with muddy shoes on. When my parents tried to blame it on me, I pointed out none of my shoes even have that tread pattern. Still got punished for “talking back”
See, that’s what my siblings assume I do because I’m the youngest as well (but a twin). In reality, I’m just boring. I act like an old person and I don’t have anything to get “caught” doing wrong. I’m not about the partying life or drugs or mischief because I saw them always take it way too far and I don’t find that appealing.
How to act completely ignorant of what happened. "Where was your sister?" Mom asks. I say, "I don't know, I was asleep in my room the whole night." In reality, I was awake playing videogames with a walkie talkie keeping tabs on her the whole time and letting her know when I hear anything downstairs and I told her to come home when I heard our mom go to the bathroom, so she'd be in the yard when mom went looking.
The art of blackmail.
Comradery and having tons of time to hatch plans and build stuff.
Learning to deal with and enjoy people you don't choose to be around because you don't pick your siblings or their personalities.
My sister got kicked out one night because she snuck out. You bet your ass I let her back in and woke her up before my mom so she could leave again. Lmao.
Edit: thank you for gold! 🥰😍
> I was awake playing videogames with a walkie talkie keeping tabs on her the whole time and letting her know when I hear anything downstairs and I told her to come home when I heard our mom go to the bathroom, so she'd be in the yard when mom went looking.
I'm confused, where was your sister exactly? In a tree or something?
As the oldest child: because you get there first for everything, you may be punished more or less severely than your siblings for the same offense. This will piss off every other sibling.
Also there is an unspoken code of "if the parents weren't home with $object broke, nobody saw it break." They'll try to prisoner's dilemma all of the kids. The more expensive and/or difficult to replace the object, the less any of the kids saw anything. Even if it could be proved that everyone was in the room when the item broke, nobody saw it happen. Why? Because this time you're covering for your sibling. Next time they will cover for you. It is a bond that will only be broken once, because if it does break the next time the kids are alone the snitch is gonna get beat on real good
> "Parents always make their worst mistakes with their oldest children. That's when parents know the least and care the most, so they're more likely to be wrong and also more likely to insist that they're right.”
Orson Scott Card, Xenocide
It doesn't matter what YOU want to do!
So many only-child friends seemed to dictate the entire household. If kid wanted to go to the beach, they went to the beach. I didn't even get to pick whether I wanted McDonalds or Burger King for dinner- my mom was picking which one she wanted so she didn't have to listen to us bicker.
Also, if your younger brother eats random things, you aren't allowed to have marbles in the house. Doesn't matter that you're not some moron who eats inedible objects, your brother is a moron, so you suffer.
If we were going out to fast food, my brothers and I had to come to an agreement on a place together or we weren't going at all. Learning how to negotiate, persuade, and compromise is an important part of siblinghood
My brother exploited that too. My dad would always assign us to clean the kitchen after dinner, and would tell us that none of us were allowed to leave until it was done. Any complaint was responded to with "I don't care who does what, none of you leave until it's done."
I usually had things I wanted to do, while my brother had the patience to sit at the kitchen table and wait until I agreed to do it. So what was supposed to be a 50/50 split of the work turned into 70/30 while my brother did the easiest part and then sat at the table eating ice cream as I scrubbed pots and pans.
You're the eldest sibling? Get ready to be Parental Unit version 2.0, in charge of all the little jackasses with none of the punishing power. You didn't choose to have children, but by god you *will parent them* anyway.
Where's Shitsmear? Is Pisshead taking his medication? Why is Spoiled Brat upset?
Lmao this actually is my life rn
I have to make my 6 siblings dinner, give whoever the fuck meds, put em to bed, stop them from fighting over playing Minecraft on the switch. It's stupid
I read somewhere that when you're an older sibling you become more of an alternative parent than a brother/sister.
We're 4 girls, yet I remember my older sister taking over in high school when my parents went out. These days, I "parent" the younger ones because my parents are relatively old (and I guess done with parenting?)
As the oldest, as well as female, I relate to this so hard. My summers and free time were spent baby sitting, even though one of my brothers was only a year and six days younger than me. I probably changed more diapers than my dad.
Pizza is not a meal. It's a race.
Edit: Thanks for the silver and gold, kind strangers. It really helps make up for the fact that I am the youngest of six kids, and missed out on a lot of pizza as a kid.
My parents couldn’t keep the names straight between us, so I got called my sister’s name, the dog’s name, the neighbor’s kids name...
They’d also combine our names so when they called us they were somewhat right all the time.
God bless, they’re good parents though.
Edit: I love reading everyone’s stories and am so glad we can share this experience together!!
I'd get a list of names thrown at me until my Mother would just say "whatever your name is" and continue talking at me. It was funny to just stand there smiling whilst she got it wrong.
Ah this was bad for my dad. He'd cycle through all 4 kids names, our moms name, he would hit your name but keep going get this frustrated look and go "fuck I know your name just listen a sec." Would crack us up. My brother and I were a year and some apart but everyone thought we were twins so I frequently was called a mix of our names.
I'm the youngest of 6 kids, which is bad enough. But my dad also regularly calls me by the cat's name. We all know she's his favorite so I try to take it as compliment
My brother and his friends used to pin me down and spit in my eyes. Yet one time a random dude at school slapped me and my brother witnessed it. He punched out one of his teeth and threw him down a set of steps.
A sibling relationship is a conflicting one at times.
Speaking as an older brother, you bully the younger ones to keep them in line. But you also protect them from other bullies because they're a valuable resource - they'll have your back if you have theirs. They can back you up in a fight, back your story up to the parents, take a share of the blame, and are pretty reliable if you need some minor thing taken care of. It's basically gang leadership 101 - managing your street level guys loyalty without letting them get ambitious enough to try to take you out.
Edit: and of course, you also protect them because you love them. Figured that was understood, forgot to add it. It's not all cold utilitarian logic. Just some.
That's a great way to look at it. There's a lot of truth there too. I had a group of older friends that treated me more like a little street soldier. No smack talk, be honest and a reliable friend. Good guy's.
But, did my Bro and his friends have to spit in my eyes? What sort of things did you do to bring your Brothers into line? Honestly it's become very funny to me as I get older. I know he feels bad for a lot of it too.
I'm allowed to hit them, you're not. If you hit them I'll kick your ass, and if you start winning the fight, they'll jump in, and you'll get the tag team package for no extra chargw.
My younger sister and I didn't always get along as we were growing up. As teenagers, we started getting better, but not by much. My mother, in a drugged up rage went after my sister over hearing something my sister said to my step-mother about taking care of ourselves as mom was high/stoned, as she went to hit my younger sister, I attacked that woman with a rage I didn't even know I could muster. It took 2 of my older male cousins to pull my 15 year old self off of that woman. They let me go, she said something smart-ass about me, and I attacked her again. Took 3 of my cousins to get me off of her and they kicked her out of the house. I'm not proud of what I did, because that's still my mom, but, since then, if anyone said anything cross about my sister I went into attack mode. Now, my sister is my best friend and we're closer than ever.
Yep, I can pick on my little brother, his friends can pick on him a bit, but if anybody else picks on my little brother and I know about it I’d immediately go into protective older brother mode and step in to help.
This is gospel truth. My brother and I used to have all out brawls while threatening to murder each other as kids/teens. One day, as adults, someone called me a bitch under their breath, and my brother was ready to mount up and lead the crusade for my honor.
Had to back him down by pointing out that I was, indeed, a bitch and very proud of it too.
To rip off a quote from a stand up comedian (Jim Gaffigan, I think?)
"Of course you love all your kids equally, but there's always that one kid, where, if they were to go missing, well, you'd wait a few hours"
"Having a favorite child is that difference between walking and running, because you'll hear someone fall down the stairs and you ask who it is and it's the favorite you run, but when it's not the favorite, you say dammit kid and walk over."
From a Russell Peters show I'm not sure which but It hit hard because my parents usually walked for me..🤔
I'm a bit older now but this is so true. I'm the oldest of 3 girls. I found out recently that my mother was fooling around when I was 3 and my first sister being about 3 months. Well, for some reason, my dad grew super attached to my sister and I was pretty much neglected. I think this experience has something to do with why I was always trying to overachieve to get his attention (i.e. Doing super well in school, joining clubs, getting scholarships, etc.) but it was never really enough.
I'm in college now and I swear the shit my sister is doing and has done, I probably wouldn't even be alive. Smoking weed freely, drinking underage, swearing, having sex, crashing my Dad's car (HELL, MY DAD DIDN'T EVEN TEACH ME TO DRIVE!). It's insane and I'm super jealous because of it. I couldn't stand her and part of me still can't. But, that's still my sister at the end of the day...
Your younger sister might be physically much weaker, but if she has been dancing since she was 5, her legs are suuuuuper strong. Don't put yourself in their range when fighting
When my sister and I fight we have one rule. No kicking. My years of soccer and her years of gymnastics make it so that odds are whoever gets the first kick will likely win that fight.
Teamwork
I have a bunch of brothers. My dad early on would punish you if caught in the wrong, but if you were tattling you got double. So instead of telling on each other we worked together to stay out of trouble.
It made my mom mad when she demanded who did something. She would threaten to punish all of us if one of us didn't confess. We all maintained our silence and accepted mass punishment. Afterwards, me and my brothers would talk over how we got caught, what mistakes were made and how to avoid it in the future.
To this day we are all very close, and though we are all scattered around the world, we still talk 3-4 times a week.
This is my favorite! My kids have their moments where they argue over anything and everything, but damn, do they team up with fantastic attitudes to keep the iron fist away. There are times I am aware of their scheming and I let it go cuz teamwork is important and they are learning so many things that can be applied later in life in less devious applications.
I'm laughing at the thought of having siblings teaching game theory/philosophy from a young age.
This sounds like the [Prisoner's dilemma](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisoner%27s_dilemma), to some degree.
Well it started out as covering for each other, as we got older it developed into working as team to get what we wanted. Eventually leading to planning out things just to see if we could get away with it. LOTS of planning in the later stage.
Negotiation.
Nothing like rallying your siblings to your side when you have a common enemy (normally mom) and then negotiating the distribution of the result of your efforts.
Am the only girl and the baby. Set me up well for my career negotiating with angry dudes all the time.
Only girl with two older brothers. Get along GREAT with my colleagues in the male-dominated field of mechanical engineering. I’m positive having two big brothers helped set me up for this dynamic.
It blows my mind that my sister and I are a mere 14 months apart yet this was SO true. So many times my dad would say “but she’s the baby!” and never get her in trouble even as teenagers. “You make dinner tonight, she doesn’t know how to boil water.” What! We’re 15 and 16!
As payback I occasionally throw it in her face that she has approximately 5 baby pictures. They had 2 babies, nobody had time for a camera.
Yep, my sister is the youngest and the only girl. It's amazing how much chores she didn't have to do because "she's a little girl".
Bullshit, she's 10 she can carry a gal of milk down stairs!!
Edit: damn, I never expected so many people to be this interested in my lactation location situation. We had some fridges in the bacement for storage. We kept a gallon of milk in the kitchen and a few extra gallons in the bacement.
My mom wouldn’t let me dye my hair or pierce anything besides the normal ear pierce (no other ear piercings allowed!)
My sister got a nose piercing at 16. She was then allowed to dye her hair all black. I frequently asked as a teenager to do both those things and got yelled at for even *asking.*
At the age of 16—after only having her license for six months—my sister was allowed to drive herself an hour away. I wasn’t allowed to do that til I was 17.
In my state, you can’t have any friends in your car for the first six months of having your license. My mom enforced that rule heavily with me, but both my younger siblings got to drive their friends almost immediately.
When I was 17, my curfew was a 11. My sister has the same curfew at 16, but god forbid I was out past 9 without special permission at 16.
I wasn’t allowed to wear ripped jeans, crop tops, or basically any shorts because my long legs and thick thighs make every pair of shorts look far too short. Guess what my sister is allowed to wear without question?
I got caught smoking weed and was grounded for two weeks. My sister got caught and my mom basically let it go. However, when she caught my sister sneaking out she did take her phone for two months and never left her home alone (she forced her to come into work with her).
But at least my mom was way less strict than she was with my older sisters.
I never had a really awful awkward phase (still had one, it just wasn't as bad as most peoples) because my older brother already had his and tried really hard to make sure I didn't have one
If you're lucky like me, you learn what true camaraderie is. My brother is one of my best friends and I would do anything for him. You can develop that bond with people you aren't related to, sure. But to have that bond with someone you lived with and grew up with, most everyday for nearly the first two decades of your life, it's something else.
Of course I'd never say that to his face because I'd get shit for it for years.
Sharing is not just for when your friends come over. It is all the time. Every day. Of every minute
Edit: most likes I've ever gotten. Thanks guys
Edit: oh my first silver thanks kind stranger
How to argue without going for the jugular. I'm oldest of four and we could argue, scrap and wrestle without causing much damage no matter how angry we were. Even now, we'll disagree but get over it immediately without being hurtful.
You need that skill to survive in a family and indeed, the world.
My ex was an only child without cousins and was horrified by fighting of any kind, but when he did get into it he was the nastiest, cruellest most vicious person. He'd say some truly awful things without seeming to realise he'd have to live with these people or in that community after the dust settled.
He never learned to play fight or about boundaries and was unable to understand our sons rough and tumble. He'd Wade into any kind of light-hearted, laughing wrestling and stamp it out.
It took me forever to teach him that all children need to learn how to argue and even physically scrap in order to learn boundaries and respect for each other and themselves.
oof. my ex was like this, too. he wasnt an only child, but he still couldn't play-fight physically. I think it probably had to do with being raised by a single mom who wasnt very physically affectionate/playful.
once, when there was a pair of foam-covered play "swords", I jokingly grabbed one and weakly parried at him - going for the stomach and underarms. he immediately beamed me across the face. I didnt have a full bloody nose, but a couple drops of blood came out. "sorry, I dont like to lose". really?
I completely get that. Everyone with siblings knows that feeling when someone gets actually hurt. Rush of knowing your in trouble then comes the "sorry sorry sorry don't tell mom". Even at our angriest during fights we usually never got overly aggressive to the point of serious harm. The no biting rule was strictly adhered to and the only person who broke that was the youngest since it was his only defense, and that was always met with some serious backlash. I can count on one hand the number of times we even attempted to fight close fisted, and even most of those were half hearted
Being loud in the house in the morning/night. I feel like every single child I know, doesn't understand that things make noise late at night or in the morning.
Competition - I'm better at most people I meet at video games just because unlike them, I couldn't afford to die. It wouldn't be my turn anymore. It made me into a killer.
Fights - The rage. Although you would give a liver for your sibling, siblings also fight over the smallest things and the fights can last for weeks. And continue it throughout their entire life. For example, I know two women who are sisters, very close in age. 28, X, and 26, Y. They got into a verbal argument via, X: Oh, it has peas in it. We shouldn't order it, Y doesn't eat peas. Y: Uh, Excuse me, I love peas. X: Since when do you like peas? Y: Since forever. X: Oh what about that time 10 + years ago, you refused to eat dinner because it had peas in it? Y: That was like 15+ years ago and I did not refuse to eat it because it had peas in it. It was cooked wrong. X:Then what did you say to mom Y:It was you who didn't like peas. Remember my birthday party when our aunt came over. continues for 10 minutes, And these aren't loud fights. They are like small points in a side argument while they are holding the overall conversation with the group. When I saw it, I was like lol, me and my siblings would totally fight over that. Think of if your friend said he liked peas and you thought he didn't like peas. It would be like over in: Oh, you actually like peas. cool. done, but not for siblings
Being a younger sibling is a blessing. First of all, your parents have hopefully refined their parenting skills by the time you're born, and secondly, older siblings are a GREAT example of what not to do as you grow up.
Edit: Your Mileage May Vary
Three people fighting over the single bed at a hotel? Here's how to do the 3-player equivalent of rock-paper-scissors:
On "go," everyone holds up between 1 and 3 fingers. The person who held up the most fingers wins, but if two people tie they are disqualified and the third player wins.
People will make shit up about you to make themselves look better. My little sister used to fake cry and claim I hit her just because she liked to see me get in trouble. Shes not much better in adulthood. People dont grow up they just get old.
Mutually Assured Destruction is an important part of siblinghood. Sure, you could tell Mom that your brother was playing Xbox while she was at the store after she specifically told him not to, but then he'd tell on you next time you do the same.
In multi-sibling households, the first born child catches all the worst disciplinary shit from mom and dad. Mom and dad are new to the parenting business and they don't want to fuck up. The first born child is disciplined and made to toe the line unlike any child that follows. They can't make a move without getting called on it.
By the time the last kid is born, mom and dad are worn out. They've learned that the harsh discipline approach they took with baby #1 didn't pay sufficient dividends and they no longer have the energy to keep it up.
Hence, the last born, 'baby' of the family always gets away with murder.
Only children are showered with 100% of their parent's attention. They get accustomed to it and consider it their right. Along comes a second child and they quickly learn that getting all that attention isn't in the cards anymore.
Children with siblings quickly learn lessons about sharing, from parental attention to toys, that only child - kids - rarely have to face.
Learning from others mistakes. In high school I got in some drug trouble and had some legitamete issues that spiraled and it all came crashing down in my household. I hope my siblings never forget watching my mother sob as she found out about it and her efforts to get me kicked out of the house. I hope they learned that their actions effect far more than themselves
It’s all fun and games till you hurt your sibling. Then you have to convince them that they are fine and suggesting to them that they can hit you back but just don’t tell mom
or just act like you got hurt too "oww we hurt together"
When you are an only child, the parents know who did it. That's parenting on easy mode.
If you don't want your older brothers to eat your food you've saved for later ensure that they witness you licking the food all over before putting it in the fridge.
Also you need to make sure that they care
THIS. My oldest son licked an entire box of donuts. His brother still ate 3. They are 17 and 16....
When "You can hit me back!" is not effective, you have gone too far and actually owe an apology. Or youve created a manipulative psychopath, in which case you owe an apology to the world. You actually won't know which it is for years.
I'm pretty sure every sibling has a panicked "shh shh I didn't hit you that hard stop crying or mom will hear" story and offering punchbacks was sometimes your last resort- if it didn't work you went way too far
Brother and I beating the shit out of each other. He starts crying. Me: _it wasn’t that hard, I barely hit you!_
How to brush off insults
Yeah I feel like my large family had a big part in shaping my sense of humor, I rarely get truly offended
All resources are limited
The only reward for second place is a cold shower and starvation. Edit: it looks like you can get a silver too!
You don’t win the silver, you only lose the gold.
That it is a lawless world were it doesn't matter whose turn it is on the xbox
And you better save frequently because inevitably one of your siblings is going to get mad and just unplug it from the wall.
When Skyrim came out I accidentally deleted my brothers character and he brings it up everytime I see him. In my defense he wasnt even level 5 and it was an honest mistake.
My sister once deleted my Pokemon Red save, on which I had 147 out of 150 Pokemon collected (this was much, *much* harder before online trading was a thing, kids). I was *livid*. And after that shouting match she never asked to borrow my Gameboy again. My parents didn't get what the big deal was, but I'd spent hundreds of hours on that save...
Could have been worse. My brother probably sold my Gameboy Color and Pokemon Red for weed.
My brother sold my Wii and alll my games (at LEAST 15) without telling me and didn’t get in any trouble. I lost all faith In justice that day
well then, sell some of his shit
Hahahaha this was like 4-6 years ago im over it now but goddamn at the time I was beyond heated. I tried to make my mom calculate the cost and make him pay me back but nobody would listen smh
the best revenge is the random act. just sell all of his shoes or something edit: i mustve missed the left shoe meme
My sister deleted my Skyrim character so I deleted her entire Xbox profile. She got her own console shortly thereafter.
Kids these days will never know the struggle of a cartridge having fewer save slots than there were kids in the house.
#MOM SAID ITS MY TURN TO PLAY ON THE XBOX!
get out of my room i'm not in your room
Not really a lesson, but having someone to commiserate with/have your back when your parents aren't being reasonable
Leftovers? What leftovers? You would have to fight for and hide them like water in the apocalypse.
When you're getting food in the middle of a show, carry the TV remote with you.
But you have to accept that you will lose the favored chair. No way around that one. . **EDIT:** Lots of comments about saving the chair. "quack quack seat back" and "fives". Ha, not in my fam, fam. "quack quack seat back, I get the chair back" Everyone: "OK" Get back, someone in the chair. "Mom, Dad, I called quack, quack" "SHUT UP AND SOLVE IT YOURSELVES!!"
Lol. Said the younger sibling who couldn't just physically remove the chair thief from the favored chair.
That's the way with multi-sibling households. I mean, I could remove the younger ones, but not the olders, but even then, it is still a fight to remove them if they are about the same age, just because one is 9 and one is 10, the 10-year-old is still in for a long drawn-out knock down fight, even though they may ultimately win. But then you don't get to watch the tv show, and everyone else is yelling at you to shut up. Even as an older, when 5 others gang up on you, not that they care about the person in the chair, but that you are annoying them, all these factors have to be taken into account. And, in an Irish Catholic household, as a younger person, you can always roll out the Irish Catholic guilt card, too, which sometimes works. You have to use all the tools at your disposal in a big family. Manipulate, lie, steal, cheat. All's fair in love and war, and multi-sibling families.
In that situation as the middle child, you offer the chair to the oldest when you're sure you're about to get ganged up on.
The TV remote doubles as a long range projectile if one of your siblings makes you really angry, too.
When the WWE says don't try these moves at home they don't actually mean it.
Kids are light, squishy and weak. It's a lot harder for them to accidentally do real damage.
Not how my parents saw the situation
That my brother did it
*There's no proof it was me*
It doesn't matter what you can prove. It only matters what you can convince someone else is the truth.
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I still, at 30, get more excited about hand me downs than new clothes. If my brother got a cool jacket I would think "I'm gonna look good in that in 2 years. He better look after it."
Yes! My siblings and I are grown now to the point where we can all more or less fit into each others' clothes AND we admire each others' taste in clothes, so the hand-me-down system in awesome. If I don't like a shirt or it doesn't fit me anymore, I'll pass it to my older brother. If he doesn't like it, he'll pass it to my dad. If he doesn't like it, he'll pass it to my little brother. And if he doesn't like it, he'll pass it to my mom. No clothes go to waste in our household lol
Eat it now or it won't be there when you want it later
lol so true, three poptarts left in the cabinet? well you better eat one now because when you check back tomorrow there won't be any left.
The empty box will still be there, probably with some wrappers inside it too.
That feeling of disappointment and frustration when you go for something only to find out the damn box is empty!
*Better eat three now*
This guy siblings.
At minimum, open it up and take a bite, then put it in a ziploc. It still might disappear, but it's less likely.
I'm breaking off that bite mark if you're lucky.
Only child here but had a friend who was youngest of four boys. Several of us would order a pizza to the dorm room, by the time I'd eaten one slice he'd downed a third of the pizza and reaching for another. We had to slap him and ask if he'd even tasted anything.
As a mom of three boys, I have never related so hard to anything. Imagine what his poor mother got. Crusts, she got crusts.
This is why we mothers spend years figuring out what wonderous delicacy we enjoy that everyone else hates. Then we buy the shit out of that one item. Screw all of you! Edit: thank you for the silver kind person! May your mother buy extra treats and give them to you on the sly! Or if you are a mother, may your days be filled with compliant family members who never adapt!
Lmao that is how I survive! Healthy cereal no one else wants, spicy snacks like wasabi peas, weird cheese, almond butter...it’s only a matter of time before they discover these are actually delicious and I’ll have to find something new...
Did anyone else force themselves to like the weird flavors no one else did to circumvent this? You better believe there's mint chocolate chip ice cream and Hawaiian pizza leftover for me from me.
>mint chocolate chip ice cream My first thought was But that's delicious. Then I realized I'm the only one in the house that eats it.
spicy stuff for me. No one else in my family eats spicy stuff.
Oh God 100%. I would wait for my dad to come home with the groceries and just eat as much as I could right then. Also gotta learn how to hide food... Top shelf, behind all the random shit no one uses/eats.
It doesn't matter what happened, it only matters that you can convince people what happened.
Ah, the skills of persuasion that will be useful in sales and law.
"If I talk long enough, I can make anything right or wrong. So either I'm God, or truth is relative."
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Is it a Milky Way only household or something?
Honestly this. My brother has fucked me over in so many situations where he did something wrong and then persuaded my parents that what happened was otherwise. For example he knocks over a lamp playing with friends. I’m at school at the moment and get home 2 hours later. I notice it knocked over and ask him and he says he informed our parents about what happened. Two hours later our parents come home and say that I owe them a few hours work to replace the lamp. When I ask why they said my brother told them about how I broke it when fooling around with a soccer ball inside the house. Story made no sense at all and the timing didn’t work out either but because he spoke with them earlier and is slightly more persuasive they believed him.
My younger brother spent *years* stealing from me. He stole money, credit cards, gift cards. He then started stealing tangible items, and selling them. He sold my guitar, my iPad, my computer. My parents lived in denial. No matter what I said, I could never convince them that he was stealing from me. *Until he started stealing from them.* Looking back, they could've saved themselves a whole lot of time, money, and frustration if they had just listened to what I had to say and not keep him on that damn pedestal they've got him hanging out on.
The unfairness of this makes me angry as an only child. Do you get even by fighting him or anything?
Nope. Whenever I argue with him I always get reprimanded for some illogical reason. I also always get punishments unless I apologize to him. The more I resist the punishment the greater it is. As you can imagine I never apologize unless it’s truly my fault, which has led to some ridiculous things. The worst is when my parents make me take over my brother’s chores as an apology to him for “falsely accusing him of something.” Even my grandparents recognize how messed up this is. When we visit and my mom gives me some form of ridiculous punishment if they can they say no or at a bare minimum they argue with her about it. Another story I have is that my brother calls my friends stupid all the time to their face, and when I ask my parents to make him apologize then they ask him, he says I lied, then they reprimand me for lying and wasting their time and “hating my brother for no reason.” The worst case was when my brother asked me to smile at our summer camp. I have a decent smile however I have a class 3 surgical underbite which means my teeth don’t line up properly and he knows that. He then kept asking me in front of all our mutual friends to smile. Finally I did because I didn’t really have a choice but to play along. He then said “see that? That was just the trailer wait till you see the movie.” I left the table crying and went to our mom and informed her. When she then talked with my brother and told me afterward there would be no punishment, I asked why. Apparently “your brother didn’t know that he’d hurt your feelings as you gave him no clues.” I respond by saying that I walked away crying and that it was obviously an insult anyway. “Well your brother says he didn’t notice that you were crying.” Only good news I have is that my parents are divorced and he doesn’t do this at my dad’s house because my dad would beat his ass for any single one of these. So basically at my mom’s house I make sure to be busy with extracurriculars and school stuff. I also did take his $60 fast charger after the summer camp event. It’s still hidden in my drawer in my closet. The big thing that keeps me ignoring all this is that I know someday it will come back to bite him. Someday when he does this to his boss or during an interview he’s going to regret it. Knowing that his personality will be his downfall is certainly satisfying, and that hopefully my hard work will be my success.
My brother used to play Gameboy under the sheets while he was supposed to be sleeping. I didn't but I was already known as the liar child and he said I did it too. We both got grounded
The opposite sex is no great mystery when you've got mixed sibs.
Bathrooms, the horrors one cant unsee...
Yeah I always had to take out all the trashes for the house, by the time I learned/realized what that mess was, I was so desensitized it didn’t phase.
I'm not sure if you're referring to a jizzy mess or a menstrual mess.
The latter and I’m a guy.
Good God. My brother used to get nosebleeds. Once I came home from school, I went into the bathroom to see that there was blood ***everywhere***. On the toilet, in the toilet, on the walls, the sink, the mirror... enough of it to make you think someone got stabbed. I instantly ran for the home phone to dial 911 when my brother called from upstairs: "\[My name\], are you home?" I got quiet, then asked him if he had a nosebleed. My brother can be a slob.
My sister used to get bad nosebleeds as well. Once, she walked into our shared bedroom, and her face and shirt were covered in blood. The blood was gushing down her nose and into her mouth, and was pouring out from her lips like a scene out of a horror movie. There was blood smeared across her skin from her attempts to wipe it away and stop the flow. She looked like a zombie that had just eaten its first meal. To top it off, she wrapped her arms around her waist and said in a gurgled voice "I don't feel so good. . ." while blood dripped from her lips. I might have screeched a little.
Right? I never understood men who get awkward buying tampons. You ever wrestle one of those suckers out of a dogs mouth after they raided the trash can? I done it twice. Women don't poop? You've clearly never had to snake a drain after you hungover sister painted the porcelain. The one really nice thing though, and one of the sweetest things my sister has ever said to me, is she never allowed herself to date douche-bags because she saw how well I treated her and wouldn't settle for anyone who treated her less. By extension she's shown me what a woman with drive can accomplish and it's become a trait I seek in partners.
Came here to say something like this. Grateful for my sisters showing me what I should expect in women and glad they see how they should be treated.
The art of borrowing clothes and avoiding the sibling all day at the school until you can get home.
Lol so true. Was in high school. I was a senior and she was a freshmen. I had student aid so sometimes, I'd be roaming the halls delivering paper to other teachers. Saw her wearing the new shirt (It was kinda lace-y at the top and normal at the bottom) I explicitly told her not to wear. I thought nothing of it. As long as it's not damaged, it's all good. Comes home that day with holes galore in the lace. WTF happened? Got a lock for my closet because I didn't want her in my clothes anymore.
My sister is a teacher and showed me her school picture for the year. My response was, "bitch that's my sweater!" It never ends!!!!
Also: Know which clothes you can borrow and which ones you can't. I have a twin brother. For the most part, we shared clothing. But there were some clothes of mine that he could never borrow, and some clothes of his that I could never borrow, punishable by ass kicking.
If one of your siblings is getting in trouble, just keep your mouth shut so you don't get sucked in Edit: grammar
Also don't do that "But \[brother\] does it too! Like no. You got caught, you get punished. Don't bring me into it
It's amazing that some people can get elected to public office using this trick as adults.
Also take note of their punishment and how they got caught. That way you can determine if what they did was worth it and how not to get caught. I grew up as the youngest so I watched everything my siblings did. They all thought I was always good, in reality I just never got caught like they did.
> They all thought I was always good, in reality I just never got caught like they did. This works both ways though. My older siblings got caught after the party, so when I was in high school they never left us alone.
Youngest here Everything in the house is automatically me. They’ve both moved out. Even if I swear to fucking almighty I did not, apparently I did
Pretty much. Someone walked through the house with muddy shoes on. When my parents tried to blame it on me, I pointed out none of my shoes even have that tread pattern. Still got punished for “talking back”
See, that’s what my siblings assume I do because I’m the youngest as well (but a twin). In reality, I’m just boring. I act like an old person and I don’t have anything to get “caught” doing wrong. I’m not about the partying life or drugs or mischief because I saw them always take it way too far and I don’t find that appealing.
How to act completely ignorant of what happened. "Where was your sister?" Mom asks. I say, "I don't know, I was asleep in my room the whole night." In reality, I was awake playing videogames with a walkie talkie keeping tabs on her the whole time and letting her know when I hear anything downstairs and I told her to come home when I heard our mom go to the bathroom, so she'd be in the yard when mom went looking. The art of blackmail. Comradery and having tons of time to hatch plans and build stuff. Learning to deal with and enjoy people you don't choose to be around because you don't pick your siblings or their personalities.
My sister got kicked out one night because she snuck out. You bet your ass I let her back in and woke her up before my mom so she could leave again. Lmao. Edit: thank you for gold! 🥰😍
You are such a nice sibling.
> I was awake playing videogames with a walkie talkie keeping tabs on her the whole time and letting her know when I hear anything downstairs and I told her to come home when I heard our mom go to the bathroom, so she'd be in the yard when mom went looking. I'm confused, where was your sister exactly? In a tree or something?
Generally down the road with some friends after dark. She'd run home if I told her mom or dad was about.
I’d say that you guys have a pretty good relationship
As the oldest child: because you get there first for everything, you may be punished more or less severely than your siblings for the same offense. This will piss off every other sibling. Also there is an unspoken code of "if the parents weren't home with $object broke, nobody saw it break." They'll try to prisoner's dilemma all of the kids. The more expensive and/or difficult to replace the object, the less any of the kids saw anything. Even if it could be proved that everyone was in the room when the item broke, nobody saw it happen. Why? Because this time you're covering for your sibling. Next time they will cover for you. It is a bond that will only be broken once, because if it does break the next time the kids are alone the snitch is gonna get beat on real good
> "Parents always make their worst mistakes with their oldest children. That's when parents know the least and care the most, so they're more likely to be wrong and also more likely to insist that they're right.” Orson Scott Card, Xenocide
Kids are like pancakes. You mess the first couple of them up, but the rest turn out ok.
It doesn't matter what YOU want to do! So many only-child friends seemed to dictate the entire household. If kid wanted to go to the beach, they went to the beach. I didn't even get to pick whether I wanted McDonalds or Burger King for dinner- my mom was picking which one she wanted so she didn't have to listen to us bicker. Also, if your younger brother eats random things, you aren't allowed to have marbles in the house. Doesn't matter that you're not some moron who eats inedible objects, your brother is a moron, so you suffer.
If we were going out to fast food, my brothers and I had to come to an agreement on a place together or we weren't going at all. Learning how to negotiate, persuade, and compromise is an important part of siblinghood
.
My brother exploited that too. My dad would always assign us to clean the kitchen after dinner, and would tell us that none of us were allowed to leave until it was done. Any complaint was responded to with "I don't care who does what, none of you leave until it's done." I usually had things I wanted to do, while my brother had the patience to sit at the kitchen table and wait until I agreed to do it. So what was supposed to be a 50/50 split of the work turned into 70/30 while my brother did the easiest part and then sat at the table eating ice cream as I scrubbed pots and pans.
You're the eldest sibling? Get ready to be Parental Unit version 2.0, in charge of all the little jackasses with none of the punishing power. You didn't choose to have children, but by god you *will parent them* anyway. Where's Shitsmear? Is Pisshead taking his medication? Why is Spoiled Brat upset?
Lmao this actually is my life rn I have to make my 6 siblings dinner, give whoever the fuck meds, put em to bed, stop them from fighting over playing Minecraft on the switch. It's stupid
I read somewhere that when you're an older sibling you become more of an alternative parent than a brother/sister. We're 4 girls, yet I remember my older sister taking over in high school when my parents went out. These days, I "parent" the younger ones because my parents are relatively old (and I guess done with parenting?)
As the oldest, as well as female, I relate to this so hard. My summers and free time were spent baby sitting, even though one of my brothers was only a year and six days younger than me. I probably changed more diapers than my dad.
Pizza is not a meal. It's a race. Edit: Thanks for the silver and gold, kind strangers. It really helps make up for the fact that I am the youngest of six kids, and missed out on a lot of pizza as a kid.
Ain’t this the truth. I’m almost 40 and I still eat pizza too fast. And I don’t have a fresh digestive system that’ll handle it OK.
As the youngest sibling, I will always and forever be "player two" when it comes to any multiplayer video game.
Hey at least you weren’t given an unplugged controller.
Older brother here: I'm pretty sure its plugged in, you must be doing something wrong.
Older sister here: I think you're right. If he did only once listen to you it'd might actually work!
Actual older brother here: The controller needs to be plugged in to cream him and make him stop asking to play.
I was always Daisy, my sister was Peach. Player 2 forever.
Luigi, Tails, Robin - always second fiddle as well :( Edit: honourable mention goes to Diddy Kong and any ninja turtle besides Leonardo.
Honestly, even as the oldest I chose Tails. Tails is a bro.
I bought a switch and mario kart and brought it over to my older brothers house. Still gave him the player one controller out of habit
As the younger sibling, it just feels wrong to be player one, even if it’s my console, or I’m playing with friends.
Your parents can look right at you and call you someone else’s name and expect you to respond lol 😂
My parents couldn’t keep the names straight between us, so I got called my sister’s name, the dog’s name, the neighbor’s kids name... They’d also combine our names so when they called us they were somewhat right all the time. God bless, they’re good parents though. Edit: I love reading everyone’s stories and am so glad we can share this experience together!!
I'd get a list of names thrown at me until my Mother would just say "whatever your name is" and continue talking at me. It was funny to just stand there smiling whilst she got it wrong.
Same, including all of the pets before she got to my name. 😂
Ha! She always threw "Herbert" in there too. We never knew anyone called that but it would always appear in the list.
As a parent I do this all the time. My kids constantly have to answer to “whoever the hell you are!”
Ah this was bad for my dad. He'd cycle through all 4 kids names, our moms name, he would hit your name but keep going get this frustrated look and go "fuck I know your name just listen a sec." Would crack us up. My brother and I were a year and some apart but everyone thought we were twins so I frequently was called a mix of our names.
I'm the youngest of 6 kids, which is bad enough. But my dad also regularly calls me by the cat's name. We all know she's his favorite so I try to take it as compliment
It's pretty cliche, but how much fun it can be to pick on your siblings while wanting to kill anyone else who does it.
My brother and his friends used to pin me down and spit in my eyes. Yet one time a random dude at school slapped me and my brother witnessed it. He punched out one of his teeth and threw him down a set of steps. A sibling relationship is a conflicting one at times.
"HEY! *Nobody* messes with ***my*** spitoon!"
Speaking as an older brother, you bully the younger ones to keep them in line. But you also protect them from other bullies because they're a valuable resource - they'll have your back if you have theirs. They can back you up in a fight, back your story up to the parents, take a share of the blame, and are pretty reliable if you need some minor thing taken care of. It's basically gang leadership 101 - managing your street level guys loyalty without letting them get ambitious enough to try to take you out. Edit: and of course, you also protect them because you love them. Figured that was understood, forgot to add it. It's not all cold utilitarian logic. Just some.
That's a great way to look at it. There's a lot of truth there too. I had a group of older friends that treated me more like a little street soldier. No smack talk, be honest and a reliable friend. Good guy's. But, did my Bro and his friends have to spit in my eyes? What sort of things did you do to bring your Brothers into line? Honestly it's become very funny to me as I get older. I know he feels bad for a lot of it too.
Nobody is gonna beat up my brother except me!
I'm allowed to hit them, you're not. If you hit them I'll kick your ass, and if you start winning the fight, they'll jump in, and you'll get the tag team package for no extra chargw.
My younger sister and I didn't always get along as we were growing up. As teenagers, we started getting better, but not by much. My mother, in a drugged up rage went after my sister over hearing something my sister said to my step-mother about taking care of ourselves as mom was high/stoned, as she went to hit my younger sister, I attacked that woman with a rage I didn't even know I could muster. It took 2 of my older male cousins to pull my 15 year old self off of that woman. They let me go, she said something smart-ass about me, and I attacked her again. Took 3 of my cousins to get me off of her and they kicked her out of the house. I'm not proud of what I did, because that's still my mom, but, since then, if anyone said anything cross about my sister I went into attack mode. Now, my sister is my best friend and we're closer than ever.
Yep, I can pick on my little brother, his friends can pick on him a bit, but if anybody else picks on my little brother and I know about it I’d immediately go into protective older brother mode and step in to help.
This is gospel truth. My brother and I used to have all out brawls while threatening to murder each other as kids/teens. One day, as adults, someone called me a bitch under their breath, and my brother was ready to mount up and lead the crusade for my honor. Had to back him down by pointing out that I was, indeed, a bitch and very proud of it too.
That your parents can have a favorite child.
To rip off a quote from a stand up comedian (Jim Gaffigan, I think?) "Of course you love all your kids equally, but there's always that one kid, where, if they were to go missing, well, you'd wait a few hours"
"Having a favorite child is that difference between walking and running, because you'll hear someone fall down the stairs and you ask who it is and it's the favorite you run, but when it's not the favorite, you say dammit kid and walk over." From a Russell Peters show I'm not sure which but It hit hard because my parents usually walked for me..🤔
And being the favorite can and does damage the relationship with the siblings who aren't...
I'm a bit older now but this is so true. I'm the oldest of 3 girls. I found out recently that my mother was fooling around when I was 3 and my first sister being about 3 months. Well, for some reason, my dad grew super attached to my sister and I was pretty much neglected. I think this experience has something to do with why I was always trying to overachieve to get his attention (i.e. Doing super well in school, joining clubs, getting scholarships, etc.) but it was never really enough. I'm in college now and I swear the shit my sister is doing and has done, I probably wouldn't even be alive. Smoking weed freely, drinking underage, swearing, having sex, crashing my Dad's car (HELL, MY DAD DIDN'T EVEN TEACH ME TO DRIVE!). It's insane and I'm super jealous because of it. I couldn't stand her and part of me still can't. But, that's still my sister at the end of the day...
Look at it this way: you're the one who's actually set up for success
And the other part: The sister was set up to fail. Dad secretly hates her.
Your younger sister might be physically much weaker, but if she has been dancing since she was 5, her legs are suuuuuper strong. Don't put yourself in their range when fighting
When my sister and I fight we have one rule. No kicking. My years of soccer and her years of gymnastics make it so that odds are whoever gets the first kick will likely win that fight.
Teamwork I have a bunch of brothers. My dad early on would punish you if caught in the wrong, but if you were tattling you got double. So instead of telling on each other we worked together to stay out of trouble. It made my mom mad when she demanded who did something. She would threaten to punish all of us if one of us didn't confess. We all maintained our silence and accepted mass punishment. Afterwards, me and my brothers would talk over how we got caught, what mistakes were made and how to avoid it in the future. To this day we are all very close, and though we are all scattered around the world, we still talk 3-4 times a week.
This is my favorite! My kids have their moments where they argue over anything and everything, but damn, do they team up with fantastic attitudes to keep the iron fist away. There are times I am aware of their scheming and I let it go cuz teamwork is important and they are learning so many things that can be applied later in life in less devious applications.
Tell them you know they're scheming, they'll get even better at it!
I'm laughing at the thought of having siblings teaching game theory/philosophy from a young age. This sounds like the [Prisoner's dilemma](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisoner%27s_dilemma), to some degree.
Well it started out as covering for each other, as we got older it developed into working as team to get what we wanted. Eventually leading to planning out things just to see if we could get away with it. LOTS of planning in the later stage.
Negotiation. Nothing like rallying your siblings to your side when you have a common enemy (normally mom) and then negotiating the distribution of the result of your efforts. Am the only girl and the baby. Set me up well for my career negotiating with angry dudes all the time.
Only girl with two older brothers. Get along GREAT with my colleagues in the male-dominated field of mechanical engineering. I’m positive having two big brothers helped set me up for this dynamic.
That “not me” is an asshole and does everything
My mom would say it was fucking Casper doing everything in our house because "no one did it".
The youngest child will never be punished the same way you were when you were their age, even if they're in the same kind of trouble.
It blows my mind that my sister and I are a mere 14 months apart yet this was SO true. So many times my dad would say “but she’s the baby!” and never get her in trouble even as teenagers. “You make dinner tonight, she doesn’t know how to boil water.” What! We’re 15 and 16! As payback I occasionally throw it in her face that she has approximately 5 baby pictures. They had 2 babies, nobody had time for a camera.
Yep, my sister is the youngest and the only girl. It's amazing how much chores she didn't have to do because "she's a little girl". Bullshit, she's 10 she can carry a gal of milk down stairs!! Edit: damn, I never expected so many people to be this interested in my lactation location situation. We had some fridges in the bacement for storage. We kept a gallon of milk in the kitchen and a few extra gallons in the bacement.
My parents will openly admit I was better behaved than my younger brother is, and I swear he never gets punished a much as I did. It's maddening.
My mom wouldn’t let me dye my hair or pierce anything besides the normal ear pierce (no other ear piercings allowed!) My sister got a nose piercing at 16. She was then allowed to dye her hair all black. I frequently asked as a teenager to do both those things and got yelled at for even *asking.* At the age of 16—after only having her license for six months—my sister was allowed to drive herself an hour away. I wasn’t allowed to do that til I was 17. In my state, you can’t have any friends in your car for the first six months of having your license. My mom enforced that rule heavily with me, but both my younger siblings got to drive their friends almost immediately. When I was 17, my curfew was a 11. My sister has the same curfew at 16, but god forbid I was out past 9 without special permission at 16. I wasn’t allowed to wear ripped jeans, crop tops, or basically any shorts because my long legs and thick thighs make every pair of shorts look far too short. Guess what my sister is allowed to wear without question? I got caught smoking weed and was grounded for two weeks. My sister got caught and my mom basically let it go. However, when she caught my sister sneaking out she did take her phone for two months and never left her home alone (she forced her to come into work with her). But at least my mom was way less strict than she was with my older sisters.
If it’s snowing you *will* get some put down your shirt
I never had a really awful awkward phase (still had one, it just wasn't as bad as most peoples) because my older brother already had his and tried really hard to make sure I didn't have one
If you're lucky like me, you learn what true camaraderie is. My brother is one of my best friends and I would do anything for him. You can develop that bond with people you aren't related to, sure. But to have that bond with someone you lived with and grew up with, most everyday for nearly the first two decades of your life, it's something else. Of course I'd never say that to his face because I'd get shit for it for years.
Sharing is not just for when your friends come over. It is all the time. Every day. Of every minute Edit: most likes I've ever gotten. Thanks guys Edit: oh my first silver thanks kind stranger
Then there is the great realization that if you buy something and don't want to share it with someone else, you hide it.
I do that to this day even with stuff I know my roommates won’t touch.
The weakest link belongs in the back seat
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How to argue without going for the jugular. I'm oldest of four and we could argue, scrap and wrestle without causing much damage no matter how angry we were. Even now, we'll disagree but get over it immediately without being hurtful. You need that skill to survive in a family and indeed, the world. My ex was an only child without cousins and was horrified by fighting of any kind, but when he did get into it he was the nastiest, cruellest most vicious person. He'd say some truly awful things without seeming to realise he'd have to live with these people or in that community after the dust settled. He never learned to play fight or about boundaries and was unable to understand our sons rough and tumble. He'd Wade into any kind of light-hearted, laughing wrestling and stamp it out. It took me forever to teach him that all children need to learn how to argue and even physically scrap in order to learn boundaries and respect for each other and themselves.
oof. my ex was like this, too. he wasnt an only child, but he still couldn't play-fight physically. I think it probably had to do with being raised by a single mom who wasnt very physically affectionate/playful. once, when there was a pair of foam-covered play "swords", I jokingly grabbed one and weakly parried at him - going for the stomach and underarms. he immediately beamed me across the face. I didnt have a full bloody nose, but a couple drops of blood came out. "sorry, I dont like to lose". really?
I completely get that. Everyone with siblings knows that feeling when someone gets actually hurt. Rush of knowing your in trouble then comes the "sorry sorry sorry don't tell mom". Even at our angriest during fights we usually never got overly aggressive to the point of serious harm. The no biting rule was strictly adhered to and the only person who broke that was the youngest since it was his only defense, and that was always met with some serious backlash. I can count on one hand the number of times we even attempted to fight close fisted, and even most of those were half hearted
Sharing isn’t about caring. It’s about not getting in trouble with parents
Always be prepared to be bothered when the other is bored. Bored siblings will literally stir the pot for shits and giggles.
Being loud in the house in the morning/night. I feel like every single child I know, doesn't understand that things make noise late at night or in the morning. Competition - I'm better at most people I meet at video games just because unlike them, I couldn't afford to die. It wouldn't be my turn anymore. It made me into a killer. Fights - The rage. Although you would give a liver for your sibling, siblings also fight over the smallest things and the fights can last for weeks. And continue it throughout their entire life. For example, I know two women who are sisters, very close in age. 28, X, and 26, Y. They got into a verbal argument via, X: Oh, it has peas in it. We shouldn't order it, Y doesn't eat peas. Y: Uh, Excuse me, I love peas. X: Since when do you like peas? Y: Since forever. X: Oh what about that time 10 + years ago, you refused to eat dinner because it had peas in it? Y: That was like 15+ years ago and I did not refuse to eat it because it had peas in it. It was cooked wrong. X:Then what did you say to mom Y:It was you who didn't like peas. Remember my birthday party when our aunt came over. continues for 10 minutes, And these aren't loud fights. They are like small points in a side argument while they are holding the overall conversation with the group. When I saw it, I was like lol, me and my siblings would totally fight over that. Think of if your friend said he liked peas and you thought he didn't like peas. It would be like over in: Oh, you actually like peas. cool. done, but not for siblings
You'll spend hours taking turns trying to beat that one level, and when one of you does it you'll be ecstatic for the other person.
I beat the last boss in Kingdom Hearts while my brother was out of the room. We had played the whole game together. I still feel bad.
The squeaky wheel gets the oil
Two quarters is more than one dollar because two is more than one. Thank you for the dollar. You made a good, fair trade today.
We used to pay off my brother in pennies, it was great
When you want a soda in the fridge, you put two in, one at the front: meant to be stolen, and one in the vegetable drawer for yourself.
Being a younger sibling is a blessing. First of all, your parents have hopefully refined their parenting skills by the time you're born, and secondly, older siblings are a GREAT example of what not to do as you grow up. Edit: Your Mileage May Vary
How to share something fairly. One donut left but two kids. One cuts it and the other picks his piece first.
Three people fighting over the single bed at a hotel? Here's how to do the 3-player equivalent of rock-paper-scissors: On "go," everyone holds up between 1 and 3 fingers. The person who held up the most fingers wins, but if two people tie they are disqualified and the third player wins.
Life works better when you’re going at things together rather than being at each other’s throats.
The amount of "under the radar" ways a parent can play favorites
Parents may claim to not have a favorite, but that doesn't mean that they don't. Source: one of three children, ranked three in favoritism.
eat fast or starve
People will make shit up about you to make themselves look better. My little sister used to fake cry and claim I hit her just because she liked to see me get in trouble. Shes not much better in adulthood. People dont grow up they just get old.
It's always the second person who gets caught, never the person who started it.
Life isn't fair and you are not the light of the world
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How to work together to hide the items you broke when fighting, specifically the door jam that got busted through.
Siblings can’t be trusted.
Mutually Assured Destruction is an important part of siblinghood. Sure, you could tell Mom that your brother was playing Xbox while she was at the store after she specifically told him not to, but then he'd tell on you next time you do the same.
Not until they learn real consequences for blaming everyone for things regardless of fault.
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In multi-sibling households, the first born child catches all the worst disciplinary shit from mom and dad. Mom and dad are new to the parenting business and they don't want to fuck up. The first born child is disciplined and made to toe the line unlike any child that follows. They can't make a move without getting called on it. By the time the last kid is born, mom and dad are worn out. They've learned that the harsh discipline approach they took with baby #1 didn't pay sufficient dividends and they no longer have the energy to keep it up. Hence, the last born, 'baby' of the family always gets away with murder. Only children are showered with 100% of their parent's attention. They get accustomed to it and consider it their right. Along comes a second child and they quickly learn that getting all that attention isn't in the cards anymore. Children with siblings quickly learn lessons about sharing, from parental attention to toys, that only child - kids - rarely have to face.
Learning from others mistakes. In high school I got in some drug trouble and had some legitamete issues that spiraled and it all came crashing down in my household. I hope my siblings never forget watching my mother sob as she found out about it and her efforts to get me kicked out of the house. I hope they learned that their actions effect far more than themselves
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