Anyone else think coming from a large family is actually not that great?

[Banoffeemuffin]

I have 5 siblings, we are all so different, I'm not really in touch with them and have my own life and friends. I just think with bigger families , there's always issues such as resentments , loyaltes, cliques and also just realizing that you don't have that much on common with them other than they came from the same 2 people.

It's just crap tbh..I wish I'd been an only child or maybe had one other sibling. Also other big families that I know of are often the same, and don't get on or are estranged from each other.

I’m also the youngest in a large family. Resented and ignored and told I was spoiled all the time (I wasn’t). One of my sisters talked about me ruining her life a lot. We’ve never had a relationship but as adults wants to be ‘close sisters’ but she’s a stranger I have zero in common with.
I do have a friend with 5 children and they all seem close, they were very close in age though. We were all spread out though.

I’m delighted that many of the posts indicate that people are happy to have loads of siblings etc.

But I think the issue is that resources including time is spread between more people in larger families.

It could be that the parents are fully capable of providing enough time/money etc for all of their children or that the children find support elsewhere but if they can’t and the children are not supported - it sucks.

Also, the idea that siblings will share the burden/cost of caring for elderly parents is simply not the reality for most families. As others have pointed put, the responsibility usually falls on the shoulders of one child. In my case, that’s me, my siblings pop in to demand money on occasion but would never inconvenience themselves.

From what I've observed (I'm an only), it's really important for parents to teach their children to be supportive and tolerant towards one another from an early age. The parents also try hard not to have favourites (even if they do, such as my PIL, we all know who the favourite children are, but they try really hard not to show it)!