A Life In Review

Someone, somewhere decided that April 10th is National Siblings Day. I’m sure you saw it all over social media. Everyone sharing those cute pictures of themselves with their sibling(s). Which led me to this (useless but) entertaining post idea. We know that there is a heiarchy to siblings (it usually follows birth order). I am the oldest so of course I have opinions on this. I thought about writing a letter from a first born, but I thought you’d enjoy this better.

I scoured the internet to find the best stats and facts about siblings. They are in absolutely no order of significance (I mean did you think I would change?), but without further ado, here are some sibling stats (also, these are fact checked to the best of my ability, so if one offends you, don’t come for me):

1. Younger siblings may be extroverted and take more risks.
2. Men with sisters are typically better at talking with girls.
3. Middle children tend to get the shaft when it comes to parental attention.
4. Parents tend to be hardest on their first born (no, seriously, don’t roll your eyes there wa a study done at Duke University).
5. “Property” is one of the biggest conflicts among siblings (even as kids, think toys).
6. More than half of U.S. Presidents were middle children.
7. Female oldest children tend to be more bossy.
8. You spend more time with your sibling than anyone else while growing up.
9. The oldest siblings tend to be smarter (not true in my house but hey, studies show it over and over).
10. Siblings tend to share bad habits with each other (both my sister and I used to be nail biters).
11. Parent’s don’t treat siblings equally (despite trying really hard to).
12. Firstborns are more prone to asthma (according to a 2008 study).
13. Having a sibling can make you slimmer (not sure who watched kids’ sizes for this study, but they claim its because having a sibling keeps you active.
14. Our siblings help us lay the foundation for our future interpersonal skills (not sure if that’s good or bad 😂).
15. Somehow, studies have found that younger siblings are funnier (not true in my house 😂)
16. Parental conflict (abuse, or just lots of arguing) tends to make the sibling bond closer.
17. Having an older sibling is linked to better mental health than having a younger sibling.
18. Toddler siblings tend to fight once every TEN minutes (this terrifies my a little bit).
19. The more siblings you have the less likely you are to get a divorce (this is according to an Ohio State University study, but did not apply to my moms 5 siblings 😂).
20. A sibling relationship may be the strongest relationship you ever have.

If you have a sibling (or siblings) some (or all) of these things may hold true to you. For me, having a sister was probably the greatest (most stressful) gift my parents could have given me as a child. My fondest memories were made with my sister by my side. We still don’t always get along, but through thick and thin we still have each other (and now I have 3 bonus siblings by marriage).

This one’s dedicated to you Squish! Thanks for making my life more interesting when you disrupted everything in 1994.

Did any of these resonate with you? Which ones were the opposite of your family (I wrote notes to show you which ones were wrong for my family 😂). Drop your answers in the comments!