I (female) have a brother almost 8 years older - absolutely adored him growing up, and we're close as adults.

I have two sisters- 4 and 6 years younger. I was never in the same school with either of them and ignored them for most of my childhood. Once I left for college I got a lot closer to my middle sister, but once my youngest sister graduated college she and I became even closer. Now we’re all extremely close and the age gap is gone.


This is similar to my DS’s relationship with his youngest sister who is 7 years younger than him, and has a middle brother who he loves but doesn’t talk to as much

I have one sib almost 7 years older—I adored them growing up, and we’re still close.

I have another sib, same gender as the first, two years younger than me. They had a difficult personality, with likely mental health concerns. The younger sib is currently not on speaking terms with either older sib or me.

I think it has less to do with age and more to do with personalities.

My sister is 7 years older brother 5 years older.

My brother and I don't get along with sister and never will. She is a spiteful, hateful person - even as a child. She never grew out of it. Even extended family (cousins etc.) have noted how awful and vindictive she can be.

It sucks when you have a sibling that is toxic, OP, but there's sadly nothing you can do about it other than disengage from them as best you can.

Anonymous wrote:I’m the middle kid (& only girl!). My brothers are 3 & 6 years older than I am, and 13 & 16 years younger than I. We are all adults now & are pretty close. Fighting as kids, sure, but no more than most siblings.

All full siblings? Your oldest brother is 22 years older than your youngest brother!

My brother is seven years younger than me and we’re very close. I was like a second mother to him when he was little but once we were older we got quite close. He still makes me laugh harder than any human on the planet!

Anonymous wrote:Same sex sibling here, also seven years apart. We couldn’t stand each other.

It wasn’t until we both moved out and got our own homes that’s we’ve started to reconcile.

+1. It’s still not great and we are in our 30’s/40’s.

I’m the middle kid (& only girl!). My brothers are 3 & 6 years older than I am, and 13 & 16 years younger than I. We are all adults now & are pretty close. Fighting as kids, sure, but no more than most siblings.

I think as PP mentioned it depends very much on the individuals in the family. I know some people whose siblings aren’t close to them at all even if they aren’t too far apart in age. That said if I didn’t struggle with secondary infertility too, I would have planned to have two children very close together, so they could hopefully have more shared common experiences together. It still really does depend on the individual people. My spouse has a younger sibling and they are only three years apart and they have zero in common unfortunately.

Im 6 years older than my brother and 7 year older than my sister. Im close to both of them and get along well with both, but they cant stand each other and are only 1 year apart , go figure..,

I’m 10 and 15 years younger than my siblings. We have no relationship. My friend is the oldest of 6 kids. The younger ones are 20, 17, 15 years younger than her but they are all super close and always have been.

It has nothing to do with age or sex, OP, but with one or both of your personalities. For example, your brother could be mentally ill (ADHD and anger issues are very common). It happens.

my girls are 8.5 years apart. I planned to have them more like 5 years apart, but I got smacked with unexplained secondary infertility. We wanted a second, so we were not going to give up just because it took a while.

Grass is always greener, right? Sometimes close in age siblings hate each other, too.

My girls fight, then love each other. It is more personality than age gap.

Same sex sibling here, also seven years apart. We couldn’t stand each other.

It wasn’t until we both moved out and got our own homes that’s we’ve started to reconcile.

My brother is 7 years younger than me. We always fought like cat and dog. I'm his sister. I always wanted another sister I could relate to to have an easier life but his constant bullying, picking at me, even as an older guy was infuriating. Anyone else have this difference with a sibling this far apart in age?