What's your experience of sisters?

[Genuinelyenquiring]

I've been reading lots of threads recently about gender disappointment and another about annoying sisters in law and they got me thinking about sisters, or more specifically not having sisters and how/if it impacts a person's life.

One poster said she understood why someone with brothers wouldn't be friends with someone with sisters as they'd be so different which seemed slightly mad to me. A lot of other posters have said, I always longed for a sister and IRL a friend told me the other day she felt her life would have been a lot better had she had a sister.

I am from a large family of girls and am close to my all my sisters but I also have a wide circle of friends who I love and confide in. I've never really considered if or how having female siblings has affected me or if it has at all.

I have a daughter and 2 sons and they're all brilliant and get on well but my daughter (only 5) often says she wishes she had a sister even though she loves her brothers. I do sometimes feel sad that she won't have a sister but I never seriously considered that it would have a long term detrimental impact on her life!

So, in a very long winded way, I guess I'm asking what your experiences/opinions are on all this? Do you think women with sisters are different to women with brothers?

I have 3 sisters and my closest friend has 3 brothers. We had extremely different experiences growing up, but are we different as adults? No, not at all.

Friends are the family you choose. I get on with all my sisters but I’m much, much closer to my friends and would always turn to friends first.

If you’d like people to vote, I’d suggest you label each option to mean something OP as it’s not very clear, sorry.

From observation, sex of siblings does make some difference to people, just as number & age [gaps] does. For example someone with 12 siblings of whom 3 are girls, the closest to her in age 7 years younger & the furthest 16 years her junior will have a very different sisterly bond to a group of 4 sisters with 2.5 years between 1 & 2 and 3 years between 2 and 3&4 (twins).

I have 7 sisters and 1 brother. I get on with some sisters but have nothing to do with the others. There were enough of us to have different "gangs" but a big problem was our mother constantly playing one off against the other. She's happiest when there's conflict. There isn't 1 in my family that gets on with everyone.

I have 2 adult sons and they're very close to each other. I would have loved to have less sisters. I actually think having such a big family is child abuse on the older ones.