Are you close to your brother in adulthood?

[Ponderingsunday]

If you’re a woman?

I have one of each. My daughter is the eldest. I am thrilled with my son, and was in no way dissapointed. However, as someone who grew up with sisters who I’m still incredibly close too in adulthood, I can’t help but feel sad for my kids if they won’t have a bond like this. All of my female friends with brothers isn’t close to them in adulthood. I’m hoping this is just my circle and for most people it’s really normal to have close relationship with brothers!

Nope. We’ve been no contact for 3 years

I am. And our kids love hanging out together.

No, only speak if we are obliged to, we don't catch up for fun.

Yep. Both early-mid 30’s and we actually live together with my DD. We were both coming out of LTR at the same time and needed to move quickly so it financially made sense to live together whilst we found our feet but we’re still here a year later! Works well and we have a great relationship

I am not very close to my brothers but there is good reason for that. My adult children of both sexes do get on well, I am am very happy to say

No. He is a recluse and only makes an effort when there is something in it for him.

I have a half brother and nope, I haven’t seen or spoken to him since roughly 2000 when we wound up our dad’s estate. It’s not because he’s a man and I’m a woman though. It’s because he’s a complete leech and a horrible person. I know lots of women who are super close with their brothers in adulthood because they both happen to be lovely people.

I'm closer to my brother now than we ever were as kids/teens.

We are very different people but I've never met a more loyal person (and my DH is a great guy so that's hard to say) but he accepts me for who I am and vice versa. We make each other laugh and I'm very lucky to have him. My SIL is a delight and we are like sisters. DH wishes he had the same relationship with his sister, but she has a lot of issues which makes this difficult.

No, no for any reason. He's 5 years younger and I left home for uni at 18, so he was still a child.
He lives in Ireland I live in England. We get on fine, but I rarely see him, maybe once a year or so.
We converse as FB friends mainly.
DH is the same with his 3 year older brother. Again long distances and sporadic contact.

I don’t. We are very different.

but I don’t think him being male is anything to do with it. He is a twat and lots of his male friends have fallen out with him.

i think that a surprisingly high number of people don’t like/ get on with their siblings. You are one of the lucky ones. Your kids could be too- especially if they have come from a happy family where it’s the norm.

i wouldn’t say there’s much of a link between closeness and whether the siblings are same sex or not.

Hated my brother the moment I found out about him so no love lost there we haven’t spoken for 5 years, I no longer speak to my parents because of him and his wife. Long may it last.

Yes. He’s five years younger than me and I couldn’t see the point of him at all all through our childhoods, but when we hit our late teens / twenties that all changed and I feel so lucky to have him in my life and I know he feels the same. He’s the only other person in the world who really understands our utterly bonkers (but lovely) parents too.

Yes. We’re very close in age and hated each other until we hit our teens, and now we’re very close. He’s one of my favourite people. We speak a lot.

Two brothers (I'm the eldest) middle brother we have nothing to do with (mental health problems his choice not to engage with any of us). Younger brother, not really close, we do socialise a couple of times a year but nothing major.

Always wished I'd got a sister.

Yes, he’s one of my favourite people. We live in different continents and speak weekly.

I'm very close to my two brothers. We have a group chat we chat on throughout the day. I've just dropped them off with my husband for a sports event they are taking part in together as a team and will head back later. We go on holidays together. We are all really supportive of each other and get on great. They are two and four years older than me and in our 40s.

No, but that’s partly because he’s the youngest and I’m the eldest of a large family, so he was still a young child when I left home, and we’ve lived in different countries since. I care for him and worry about him, as he doesn’t seem happy, but we’re not close beyond very occasional meetings at family events and family WhatsApp group stuff.

No contact

I am and I have 3

I haven't seen my brother for fifteen years. It's because he's a cunt, not a male.

I don’t have a brother but I’m not close to my sister at all. Having same gender children doesn’t guarantee that they’ll be close. I know plenty of brothers and sisters who are far closer than me and my sister.

When did you find out about him? Later in life? Half-brother?

I’ve never even thought about not having a sister so I don’t think I’ve missed out there.

I have a great relationship with my brother; he’s 3 years younger and lives in a different part of the country but I admire him a lot. We have a laugh and do the serious stuff and have been there for each other in difficult times. Our parents are getting on now and I know we will be shoulder to shoulder looking after their needs and dealing with their passing when it comes.

My DB and I live in different countries. We chat maybe once a month but there are multiple messages a week on the family what’s app group (which our spouses and parents are also on) with photos of the kids, etc. Are we close in the sense of speaking all the time? No. But are we close in the sense that I would drop everything to help him out if he needed me and believe he would do the same for me, and can we can talk openly about things like job issues, stresses with the kids, etc? Absolutely yes. And above all could I trust him to take care of my kids if anything happened to me and DH? 💯

No, we have nothing in common and if it wasn't for the fact we are related, he'd be a friend I'd have lost contact with years ago