I can honestly say that I have a great deal of experience here. I come from a fairly large blended family. I have two sisters and two brothers. Our relationships can some times be all the things that sibling relationships should be and sometimes you need body armor to come anywhere near us. One thing is for certain though. No matter how angry I get at my brothers and sisters I do not ever allow them to be hurt. You would think if I fight with them I would let anyone but I don't. Hopefully using my own experiences will help you to understand why you fight with your siblings.

When my mother married my step-father he had a daughter that was older than me and that did not go well. They had also had a baby together and that didn't help. I felt like an outsider. I was not the oldest anymore and I felt at first that I had no place. They had their own family now. My older step-sister was pretty and popular, all the things I wasn't, that alone was reason enough to hate her. Mix into that the feelings of being removed from my personal place of power as the oldest and the fires were stoked under a pot that would boil over many times during the years. It only took little things for me to be angry with her and to pick a fight. I got mad because she got something I wanted or because she got to do things before I did. It has taken me 20 years to realize she is older than me and that is why she got to do things first. I can't say our relationship ever really improved but she is still my sister and I love her.

My big little brother, I like to call him, because he is a lot taller than me, is another ball of wax all of himself. When my brother was born he was premature and very ill. He had to be held and coddled all the time. It was so bad that he could not be allowed to cry. My mother had to pay a ton of attention to him all the time. I felt like because I was not sick and didn't need her like he did that she just did not love me anymore. After she married my step-father it got worse. I always found myself feeling like no matter what I did it would never get me the attention I wanted from my step-father because I was not a boy. I played softball and got yelled at for doing things wrong. My brother played baseball and got praised for playing even if he played a horrible game. I got a 'C' on my report card and got grounded but he could fail and that was OK because he has problems in school. These things led to many fights and arguments. The worst part was that he was a typical little brother. He pulled pranks and did things to annoy me but I was not allowed to do anything in return. Brothers are a pain for their older sisters and it does not help when they are daddy's boys to boot.

Relationships between brothers and sisters have been love and hate since the beginning of time. Hey just look at Cain and Able. We find things to be petty and jealous over no matter how equally we are treated. Using just two of my four siblings I have shown you how silly we can really be. At the end of the day I love my brothers and sisters and I would not want to have any others than the ones I have. No matter what we say, no matter what we do we are a family and that is all that matters.

Learn more about this author, Teresa Smith.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.

---

Add your voice

Know something about The relationship between brothers and sisters ?
We want to hear your view. Write now!