Sibling Love

Many times when we consider child development and those who hold the most weight in securing our development to helps us grow, it is the parents and or caregivers. They say it takes a village to raise a child, but sometimes the biggest influences on child development are the child's siblings themselves, or even lack of siblings. The order in which how our parents have us, often influence our behaviors as we grow up into adults. Only children even though they are assumed to be very spoiled, are actually more motivated and self-achieved. Those with siblings suffer from the split of attention and being compared to the other siblings, and most times its not in the best ways. The youngest sibling tends to be spoiled and babied, the middle child seems to suffer the greatest in lack of attention, and the older siblings are mostly held responsible and critiqued more, being the first to make mistakes as the first child of the family. While it seems that parents play a big role in treating specific children in particular ways, the sibling relationships go through many trials but seem to always be the longest lasting friendships siblings have.

Sibling relationships range in closeness and hostility, and this can be found by their age order, gender, and parent's behaviors. Conflict mostly arises between siblings when there appears to be conflict between the parents, or families as a whole. Most times it tears the siblings apart, but sometimes siblings try to assume the role of parents and be there for each other when their parents can't be. There are many siblings who might fight or struggle to get along at home, but when it comes to outside peers or even their parents, they tend to stick together. Sibling relationships also function to develop social and cognitive developments. Between their daily interactions (in which the times they spend together in their homes are mostly together) and being different age ranges, siblings share and are attached with each other the most. Many times when siblings are younger they are very close, but as they enter teen years (or the eldest does) they seem to drift apart. But once they are adults and begin to start their own families, they look to each other for that same familiar relationships, and re-kindle their close bonds.