Reconnecting with Siblings

This past week, my sister made the move from Wisconsin and now lives just 10 minutes from me. I am thrilled! She is the oldest of four siblings. I am the youngest. In the photo above, that’s her on the left and that’s me right next to her. As the four of us grew up, became adults and started our own lives, we didn’t stay in touch the way we could. Oh sure, we’d call on birthdays and maybe a few other times during the year, but it was nothing like my husband’s close relationship with his two sisters.

The seven year age gap between her and me seemed enormous when I was still a little girl of 10 and she was getting ready to fly the coop. Now, not so much, she’s the same age as my husband. Somehow though, she still manages to remind me that I was the baby of the family, and therefore all the sibs dubbed me the spoiled princess. I have my own take on being the youngest, and in my version “spoiled” and “princess” don’t even appear. In fact, I think by the time I came along, my parents were pretty worn out, so I just sort of ran feral.

I enjoy spending time with her after all these years. Sibling relationships are usually the longest relationships we have in our lives, so there’s so much shared history. It’s fun to hear her perspective on events from our childhood. Hers may be very different from mine – a view of a young girl versus a teenager. When we think of where we grew up, that’s even different. We moved when I was five and she was 12.

All this has got me thinking about how birth order plays a part in shaping your personality. I know this is a controversial subject. Some studies show it had little to do with your personality traits, while others believe it could have a great deal of influence. I’ve been doing my own research on the subject, and based on what I read, and how it applies to me, I am convinced there’s something to it. To me, it just makes sense that the way your parents and sibs treated you in relation to your birth order impacts you for life.

I won’t go into specifics here, it’s just too vast a topic. I encourage you to do your own research and see how much you relate to. There are some excellent books on the topic including Linda Blair’s Birth Order, The Birth Order Book by Dr. Kevin Leman, and The Birth Order Effect by Clifford E. Isaacson and Kris Radish. And then share your findings, I’d love to hear from you.