First time you made your brother or sister cry.

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We’ve all done it…either more on the giving end or the receiving end when we were young. I am a younger sibling myself, and when we were really young my brother was always getting me in trouble. Sound familiar?

Do you remember what your punishment was? Its severity was always linked to the level of the crying your sibling was making - noise which you had caused with the utmost glee.

Some people I spoke to had no memories of making their sibling cry or themselves being made to cry by their sibling. I think it depends on whether you have one or more siblings, and if they are the same sex as you. Brothers to brothers have a very different relationship to brothers and sisters, and sisters to sisters. Sometimes we are jealous of the relationships our friends have with their siblings when we are much older…. It’s a family thing and how close you are. Anyway…it wasn’t always like that was it…….?

Daft

“I used to come home from a day at nursery school, all eager to learn more. I loved reading when I was growing up and couldn’t get enough books to read. I’d read the same ones over again if I got the chance!

I’d pick up my little sister – she’s four years younger than me – and sit her down on the bed and say “right, read that!”, pointing to one of my story books. She’s be all “tra, la, la, la, ga” type thing. She was only one!

I got all angry and started to shout at her, asking how she could be so thick and stupid. I think I even chucked her off the bed! She started crying and howling and Mum came in and gave me a row.

She did try to explain to me that my sister couldn’t read yet because she was a baby. I just couldn’t believe it. “Why would you have such a stupid child Mum? I’m not stupid after all!”.

I just couldn’t understand that if I could read and write, why couldn’t she? I don’t think I was able to define the time lapse thing in that I had to grow up to learn how to do it, not that it just happened right away and I could always read.”

Bite

“I remember biting my younger brother Graham. He’s three years younger than me and so I’d have been say about seven or eight and he’d be four or five. We used to play toy fighting – messing around just as boys do really. We’d kick, punch, throw each other about – nothing major sore.

I don’t know why I bit him – maybe I was stuck in a body lock and couldn’t get him off me. Anyway, whatever reason I bit him on the arm and he started shouting and bawling on Mum. When she heard what I ‘d done – my brother grassing on me so quickly too – she belted me for it and then put anticeptic on Graham’s arm! I really doubt I broke the flesh but I suppose he was making such a fuss it probably was an act on my Mum’s part to make him feel special.

Me? Well I couldn’t understand what the big deal was; couldn’t work out why we were allowed to kick and punch each other but not to bite!”