Your parents leave you too soon and your kids and spouse come along late, but your siblings know you when you are in your most inchoate form.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
Many people don't have relationships to their siblings in adulthood, or they have superficial ones. It's sort of unfashionable, particularly in America, to be close to your family.
I am the youngest of four siblings, and we're all so close. I don't know where I would be without my brothers and sister. I secretly believe that my parents love me the most!
In some ways, siblings, and especially sisters, are more influential in your childhood than your parents.
When you grow up without a brother or sister, you tend to see things just through your own eyes. You have friends and everything, but you spend most of your time watching TV or sat in a room making decisions about your life on your own.
From a young age, I wanted to differentiate myself from my older siblings.
It's a funny thing when you know someone and you meet their siblings - you get so much a sense of who they are because when you can recognize similar traits in the family, you understand exactly why they are the way they are.
There are a lot of things that you don't realize that your parents are going through when you're a kid.
When you have a lot of siblings, you always do something to feel special.
When you come from a big family, you see that, growing up, you're learning how to share. Your sisters have got your back; you're not alone in this - 'We all support you!' Your family provides that; it gives you a sense of safety, and it's a very grounding feeling.
Parents always stay older than you, but sibling sort of become adults together, and that complicates that relationship, I think.