General Chat

I'm the youngest of 4.
Two brothers, 7 and 6 years older, and a sister, 4 years older - so guess who was the 'accident' LOL
My very young years were spent mainly on my own. The other 3 were at school, or out playng with their friends, while I had to stay indoors.
Even at 3, I remember 'escaping' fom the house on quite a few occasions, resentful that i was 'locked up' while the others went out to play.
My brothers went to boarding school, so they had to 'look after' me during the holidays, my sister had to 'look after' me during term time - and they all resented it - but we did have some good times.

Apparently I was a 'difficult' child, always wanting attention, but looking back, I didn't get it - unless you call a whack attention!! LOL I know i felt very unwanted.

I spent a lot of my younger teenage years misbehaving - well most arguments were about my love of walking in the dark!
The irony is, my parents left to work abroad when i was 15, (get the feeling they couldn't wait to get away from me?) leaving my sister in charge of me - so i could walk in the dark as much as i wanted then - in fact I could do anything I wanted!

We never really knew one gran, or our aunts, uncles or cousins as we moved around a lot.

My brothers, sister and I are very close now - and it's telling that the three of us who have children (two apiece) brought them up in a totally different way to our parents, who weren't very demonstrative (in the loving sense) - in the admonishment sense - far too demonstrative!

We regularly have family get togethers- all our children, their partners and our grandchildren (I've got 3 grandchildren, my sister 1) - and for the past 4 years we've gone on holiday together - well mainly my sister, me and our families - we even survived a week's camping this year - and we're still friends!! LOL

However, I now live on my own - and love it!

There was me and my sister who was nearly 5 years younger.She was a right pain in the backside when she was little ,but we get on like a house on fire now.We are both adopted from different families.I always wanted a Brother,and what a shock I got when I decided to look for my Birth Family.I was one of 8.5 boys,3 girls lol.I was the lucky one and had a very happy Childhood ,but sadly most of the others grew up in care.I have met 2 brothers.
It is strange isn't it how life turns out .I am grateful for being given away and not having to live in poverty before going into care as the others did.

Middle of three, me. Not the best position to be in. Sister 6 years older, and brother 3 years younger.
Julia in Derbyshire

i'm only only child and it's never bother me being one...my only concern as a child was that i thought i'd never be an aunty...mum used to say oh you'll marry someone with loads of brothers and sisters..........i married the youngest of 12!!!!
I thought it must be nice to have that big a family but most of my husbands siblings can't stand each other and theres a lot of jealously amongst them.....so i'm glad there's just little old me

ONLY CHILD
LONLEY LIFE

I'm an only child, so it was a bit lonely at times. On the other hand, I didn't have to fight for my parents attention.

Looking through rose tinted specticles, it would have been nice to have siblings, although I made up for it by having a very good friend from childhood who is like a sister, and another friend (not so close) who is like my big brother.

DET

I am the eldest in one family and the youngest in another ~oh boy solitude ~ i had proberly had to much of it.

Lx

I was the eldest of 2, my sister was 6+ years younger than me. We didn't really get on as children as the gap was too big and when I was in my teens I often had to take her around with me so resented her a bit. Not too bad now. I would have liked an elder brother I think. But never wanted lots of brothers and sisters.
Strangely my Mother was one of 9 although one died young, my Dad was one of 5 but one died young and one during the war. So I had a big extended family of Uncles, Aunts and cousins and I am still in contact with most of my cousins. So that is sort of like belonging to a big family.

i was one of two children
my brother is a lot older than me
so we never had much in comon

we do speak to each other but never socialise

Yes I was one of 8 although the firstborn died as a baby, I was also a London Evacuee in 1939 when was the baby of the family and was the only child to my foster parents, Didn t come home til Jan 1946 when 3 more siblings had joined the family group which then made us 6 ,the last child was born in 1949,
I loved my brothers and sisters but often sought solitude from them ,would spend time in my room reading and generally enjoying being on my own.Whether this was because I didnt grow up with them for the formative years that i felt somehow distant but my husband has always said i am very different to my siblings.The only one who is similar to me is the youngest sibling born when I was 12+ and who i have a close relationship to. We even seem to have the same tastes and are again a bit different from the others in outlook and likes etc.more like kindred spirits that the rest of the family

you wish for a bit more solitude lol , or conversely if you were from a small family did you wish for a larger one?

Being one of two children ( very happily so) , I have sometimes wondered what it would have been like to come from as large a family as some of my ancestors.

Did you have a vision of a happy family like 'The Waltons' if you found an ancestor with a large family or did you have the feeling knowing a bit about each person ( or your family 'temperament' lol) that they might well have been at each other's throats a lot ?

I don't know much about the 13 siblings on one side of my tree, but the other side with 6 I know had certain siblings who were closer than others, some who struck out on their own more.