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You're listening to Life Kit

from NPR.

Hey everybody, it's Stacy Vanick Smith in for Mariel Segara.

So I am an only child and I've always been so jealous of my friends who have siblings,

because I just thought having a sibling

sounded so amazing.

You know, like an older sibling who would watch out for you

or blend you clothes or give you great advice or a younger sibling who would

look up to you and just think everything you did was amazing. A sibling just seemed like

a friend, a confidant, a partner in crime that was built right into your family unit.

Of course, family, it's always complicated.

And sibling relationships are, of course, no different.

My experience with having more siblings, I feel like it's just a greater opportunity for trauma.

I think that my sister wants deeper connections in the family.

I wish I could just talk to my younger brother.

I think, yeah, we've never had a relationship where communication was a normal thing.

Siblings, they grow up alongside us, but sometimes people grow at different paces or in different

ways.

And that can make it really hard to keep a healthy relationship going.

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