Baby, Middle, Big

[casimendocina]

Originally Posted by DanaC

Anon's Goodnight thread got me thinking.

I am very close to my brother. He's six years older than me and as such has always been in my life. I have no experience of being the only child. My experience of childhood was always that of the baby of the family. It seems to me that this is an intrinsic part of who I am as an adult. It's part of my identity: I am a little sister.

Similar for me. My brother is 5 years older than me. My parents wanted 4 kids, but there were a couple of pregnancies that never reached term for various reasons in between him and me and mum wasn't 100% healthwise while pregnant with me. My brother got all the calmness. (If it weren't for the physical resemblance and the unmistakable similarities in voice with other family members, sometimes I would wonder where he came from). That, probably more than anything, is why he seems older. He's always calm-mostly, not necessarily always useful, but non-volatile and wise and because of that, people overlook his disorganisation. I'm the one who's got their paperwork in order, pays their bills on time and gets back to people. He doesn't, but it doesn't phase him and that seems to be the key-I, on the other hand, worry about pretty much everything, except packing up everything I own and moving countries repeatedly. I think our parents wish that we had each other's good qualities and none of our own bad ones.