To ask if you have a good relationship with your siblings

[Coldnights]

How does it work with family stuff if you don’t?

Nope.

I don't particularly. It's not that we dislike each other we just don't have much in common

Only see each other when our parents arrange a big family event, so maybe 2/3 times a year? We only live 40 miles apart. We have children, they don't - just polar opposites of each other

Yes, my brother and sister are my best friends and my family are the people I love spending time with the most.

I've seen both my parents have strained relationships with their siblings and I'd be devastated if that happened to me and my siblings.

Not particularly- as others have said, we are just very different people, and we are quite geographically scattered, no major fallings out or being on bad terms but just not much in common. I do think though that if there was a genuine emergency we would always be there for each other

I wonder what parents do that fosters or endangers a sibling relationship. My parents are slightly complicated - nothing terrible but my sister is like an ally in dealing with them. We’re 6 years apart and live continents apart from each other but speak everyday and love each other very much. We’ve had fights and arguments and have slowly learned to relate to each other as adults rather than replaying childhood dynamics. Helps also that we like each other’s partners a lot.
My DH and his brother are close but SIL and I have v little in common and don’t bother much with each other.

I only have one sibling - my brother - I really get on with him and LOVE spending time with him.

I used to spent all my free time with him - always socialised together and went on holiday together - don't see him so much since i got married but make a real effort to keep in touch via facebook etc.

I'm almost 50 and since I was 15 have never even had a cross word with my brother yet alone an argument!

He's the only man in my life who has never let me down LOL! ... although my DH is very lovely!

We didn't get on as children though!

I’m close to my brother and sister, and our kids are close to each other too (there are 8 grandkids) I’m the eldest so they used to annoy me greatly but when I moved out of home we started hanging out together and socialising with each other’s friends. My sister lives on the same road as me, my brother a couple of miles away and our mum lives in between, so we (usually) see a lot if each other. That’s not to say they never annoy me, and I’m sure I piss them off sometimes, but they are my best friends too.

Adore my siblings, we're extremely close despite me living 4000 miles away.

Our younger brother died a few years back (cancer) and it almost destroyed us. I'm so grateful my sister and I had each other for support and also so we could both support our parents and SIL.

My SIL came to visit with her new partner for a a few weeks, and DH flew my sister and my best friend out as a surprise for my 40th last year.

My only desire to return to the UK is to be breathing the same air as my family, I adore them all and miss them to my very core at the moment.

Fantastic, she’s my best friend.

I don't have a good relationship with my sister at all. We don't really talk much. Send each other Christmas/birthday cards & presents for each other & for our kids but that's about it. It used to really upset me but I'm not much bothered any more. Sad but true!

My sister is 11 years older than I am, and we couldn’t be more different if we tried. The only thing we have in common is that we have the same parents. I wouldn’t say that we’re close but I enjoy any time spent with her, although we don’t get together very often (usually just when we happen to visit our parents at the same time on a weekend) and I haven’t seen her since February.

My dsis is someone I feel a great bond with, but we're not massively close. We WhatsApp each other once a month or so, and in normal times see each other about 4 times a year (we live 2hrs drive apart).

I don't have anything to do with any of them. I suffered abuse from my mother and they all kind of sided with her. No time in my my life for that sort of person.

I encourage my children to be friends. I am a good grandmother in that I am supportive of the families and help them to have better, easier lives. Family can be great if you behave yourself :)

To answer your actual question if you don’t get on..

We don’t communicate at all, at some point when parents die as they are elderly I’ll need to inform them as neither of my brothers are in contact with them for their own good reasons and by default I’m not with them, all very sad really.

Why do you ask OP?

No not really. I'm the eldest and have two brothers. The youngest I get on with ok but we were never really close growing up as there is a 9 year age difference so by the time he was out of the baby/toddler years I was out all the time with friends and was not close with my family through my entire teen years. The eldest is just not a nice person at all. When we were kids he was great and we were best buddies but after he turned 18 he just became a real arsehole. I don't know how my parents tolerate him (they pay for much of his life still really) but he has kids now so they look after them I guess as his wife doesn't work since having them. I feel sorry for his wife - he is horrible to her. I might see my youngest brother if my parents die before us but I'll never see the older one again.

At family gatherings (of which there aren't many with all of us as arsehole brother rarely attends) I chat a lot with my younger brother and his wife and to the older brothers wife but he basically ignores everyone.

It's a shame and I wonder what will happen with my kids. They were best mates as kids but since DD became a teenager they don't get on (more because she seems to hate him than anything else!). Not much I can do about it really. Both my parents fell out with the majority of their siblings - always due to care of their elderly parents, and after they died never spoke again. I think sibling relationships are very tricky.

2 brothers, 1 sister. Haven’t spoken to my sister for 20 years. I don’t see my brothers either although we haven’t fallen out. Doesn’t bother me any more.

One sibling. Get on really well and speak each day.

Two sisters and we dont really talk...no falling out just very very different people with nothing in common. We are all very spread out geographically so don't see each other often. When we do though we get on fine. I do sometimes think it's a shame we are not closer but it is what it is.