42 thoughts on “Weekend Question Thread”

  2. Youngest of two, with a strong “Look at MEEEEEE!” streak. Having an older brother (by two years) with severe asthma will do that. Luckily, my brother is a wonderful, wonderful man who now works with special needs kids (autism, primarily).
    No, that has nothing to do with his experiences growing up.
    Shut up.

  5. Like Stormy, third of four. Oldest girl. Blacksheep. Atheist among a bunch of Mormons. Somehow, they manage to love me anyway. I just have to keep politics as an untouchable subject around the one brother who mainlines Rush Limbaugh.

  6. I don’t know, Athenae, I’m all about yelling and bossy, as well, but I’m the youngest of three. Though the only girl–so maybe that’s why I yell and boss so much.

  8. Youngest of two, both girls, 10 years apart. Oldest could do no wrong (even that serial marrying/divorce streak she was on for a decade or so) and I was the black sheep that could do no right.

  9. Middle kid, with all the positive and negatives that go with that.
    My nephew, another middle kid, believes that when he finds he has a special rapport with a stranger, that person is almost always a middle child.

  11. Youngest of three live births; sister and brother, brother is the middle kid. Between my sister and myself there are 10 years, between brother and myself four years. However between sister and brother there was a still birth; I was never told if the child was a girl or boy. I was given a certain amount of freedom to come and go places like the library or musuems and to be alone reading but that was about it for special treatment. Ballet lessons and early speech therapy were stopped because they interferred with my mother preparing dinner for my father.

  12. Only child for nearly fifteen years, ’til my brother came along. My family has raised two only children, pretty much.

  14. I was an only child until I was almost ten, and then my sister came along.
    Like virgotex and leinie, I’m the black sheep of the entire family. It doesn’t matter what I do, it’s never good enough. My sister, on the other hand, who is a fuckup in a lot of ways (e.g. she’s 24 years old and a two-time community college dropout, whereas by the time I was 24, I had a Master’s degree from a top-tier school), gets a lot of passes for things that I don’t get.
    My sister also looks like Nancy Spungen (as in Sid Vicious’ girlfriend) and sounds like Ann Coulter, which means she fits in quite well with them, as they’re generally right-wing and bigoted.

  15. Eldest of two. 8 years between me and my half-brother. I know I am loved, but I don’t think my mom and step-dad understand me. They used to be liberal, and for the last 8-1/2 years, somewhere they started drinking the kool-aid…might be due to my mom then working for a halliburton subsidiary…? (and now I have seen mccain literature on their counter…!?!?!)
    My brother gets a pass on most everything…and financial assistance any time. I prefer to be independent (and yes, I am vocal and bossy – ’cause I KNOW how to do things!!!) and hate to have to be helped.
    Cool topic, A!
    Elspeth

  18. Oldest of two with a younger sister. But whenever I’m asked at work or out socially, I steal a great Steven Wright joke. “I was an only child…EVENTUALLY.” Heh.

  19. Youngest of 6. 4 boys, two girls. 17 years spread between me and the oldest.

  20. i’m surprised at the number (so far) of two-children families.
    i am a middle child of three (sister 19 months older, brother three years younger) and both of my parents are middle children of three.
    i always laughed that i would marry a middle child and have three children. it never panned out, i never got married and never had any kids. i’m just as glad though as my brother’s kids have outgrown the cute stage and are looking to outdo the rest of us in dysfunctionality — there but for the grace of the gods go i!

  21. I am the second child of eight. From 1956 to 1970, my mother had a new baby in the house about every two years.
    My dad was a logger, made enough to keep us fed and good shoes and school clothes but not much else. We lived in a small town near the Canadian border in eastern WA state. Lots to do, places to run, frogs to catch, and a gazillion pets.
    We gather together at the end of April when fishing season opens. Each of us will move Heaven or Earth to be there. Now, we have in-laws and best friends as part of the family. Potlucks are a thing to behold when we bring the whole Fam Damily together.
    Feast of a Thousand Salads! – with homemade beer!

  22. Youngest of three.
    My sister (#2, 8 years older) took care of all the breaking in our parents needed as far a pushing the boundaries.
    My parents fight was out of them by the time I was a teenager. I had it easy. Ahhhhhh. (though to this day, in my mid thirties, I’m still the one who gets tapped first for the heavy lifting chores my folks can’t keep up with. It’s the least I can do to thank my older siblings for their hard work on my behalf)

  24. Youngest of two, tagged along with my older, by 18 months, brother for all of his childhood. I learned everything worth knowing about life from him. He learned that little brothers are a pain in the ass.

  26. Yes, hoppy, little bros are a pain in the ass. I got three of them. Wouldn’t trade them for the world. They’ve gone from pains to honorable hard working men.
    Although my youngest can still be a bit of a pain, it’s his right as the baby of the family.

  27. Second of seven (2 boys then three girls then two boys).
    We have vacationed together for fifty years on the New Jersey shore, for the last 30 or so with spouses and children. This year for the first time with spouses and children and spouses of children.
    Frankly much of the time I don’t feel that I have anything at all in common with them. But in many ways they’re as much a part of me as my fingers and toes are.

  28. Oldest of three, plus my two step sibs. I was supposed to be fraternal twins, but it all came out as me.
    At the age of 13 I became mom when my mother died. My sibs don’t like me since I started the Morwen path, but my cousins do like me. I’ll take my cousins.

  29. The youngest of two boys. Also known as The Usurper. And never quite forgiven for it.

  30. Oldest of three. My sister is 1.5 years younger than me, and my brother is 2 years younger than her. My mother had just turned 24 when my brother was born, and, family legend has it, my father showed up with a notary to the hospital after he was born. The notary was to witness my mother signing papers so he could get a vasectomy. Which in 1964 was pretty darned unusual. So, just three of us.

  34. Funny how so many here are the product of sound family planning…me included. Youngest of three and by 10 years of my sister and 13 years of my brother. In the early 50’s too, so it wasn’t like there was good birth control then. I grew up like an only since the other two were so much older. An older mom, mine was 41 when she had me…left a mark I guess since I was 37 when I had my only child.

  36. Oldest of two, spent 1/2 my life thinking I was the only, found out about younger sister when I was about 20.

  37. Second of Nine. (No, almost a Borg). One of two males. Catholic, not Mormon. Spiritually freelancing, not in the Catholic Hole.

  39. Younger of two. No idea if it makes/made any difference at all…

  40. Elder of two, both male — little brother is 3 years younger and was the constant tag-along and all-round pest. We fought like cats and dogs right through middle school, mostly because he knew just how to press all my buttons with teasing, taunting, and general disrespect. We’ve been great friends ever since — I wouldn’t trade him for for any superhero you could name!

  41. Second of four: older sister 1 year 8 months and 25 days ahead of me, brother 2 years behind me, and “baby” sister 8+ years behind him.
    I am the somewhat-redeemed black sheep, the messy and political and uncoordinated one. Older sis is Type A, brother is Middle Management Republican, younger sis is working out the kinks.
    But I am forever grateful for my siblings; it was every kid for him/herself early on, but age has brought us all much closer.

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