Sisters make you happy, brothers cause distress.....

[andlipsticktoo]

Oh blardy hell something else for me to worry about.
I make a concerted effort to talk about thoughts and feelings with my 3ds.
what do you think?

Interviewing a relatively small amount of 17-25 year old boys/men doesn't seem a very substantive piece of work. I didn't appreciate my siblings until I was quite a bit older, and had a better understanding of family dynamics. But I expect that the study was rather more complex and the article is stupidly reductive, as is usually the case.

It's not just the research though is it? The co-ordinator of the charity Support Line, which offers counselling to young people and families, said: "This is very interesting and certainly chimes with our experiences.
"Boys tend to internalise problems and in families where there are lots of sons, I can see that can cause problems."

I guess us mothers of lots of boys and no girls just need to be aware of this.

I have no sisters , always wanted one, have a brother who drives me mad, rings me all the time for advice and when I try to give him some he shouts at me,

dh is 1 of 4 boys they get on now that they are all out of the house but 4 grown men in the house was not good, I get on brilliantly with my BIL's

PBM that's very telling that your bro rings you for advice.
Does your dh ring his bros for advice, or just friendly chats? Do they discuss their feelings?
I'm just interested because I have 3ds, and hope that when they are older they will be supportive and listen to each other.

Well actually they would ring each other for advice more so when they the others didn't have partners, different brother for different advice,
I've been with dh from we were 16 and have seen them all at their best and worst, and it was hard going with 4 grown men in house

My family are all close with our feelings, but I think that is a bit of a class thing to be honest - stiff upper lip and all that. Now we are grown up I have the most emotional conversations with my big sister, a fair few with my bother, and very little that isn't practical with my middle sister. I think if you don't expect your sons to talk about their feelings, then they won't, so as much a societal construct as biology.

Another way of the media to slag off boys/men just like in the education debate - it really annoys me

Aw, I quite like my brother! In fact, apart from the usual sibling fights we had, when we were little, we knocked around in the same group for a few years in our teens and now, he is classed as part of our friends group, rather than relations, iyswim!

I have 3 sisters and 2 of them have certainly not brought me any happiness. They caused untold problems all through their lives and still do. I now have limited contact with them. I would have loved a brother. My dh also has 3 sisters and again it is only one that he is close to, I do think that having sisters has made him more open and non aggresive, although he may have been like anyway.