And so as we mark National Sibling Day (April 10 of each year), I'd like to share here some interesting facts about sibling relationships. The information below is courtesy of ibtimes.com.
1. Siblings spend a lot of time together: By the age of 11, children devote one-third of their free time to their brothers and sisters, a 1996 Penn State University cited in TIME showed. That amount of time is even more than they give to their friends, teachers and parents -- and themselves.
2. Siblings teach us social skills: Fighting with your brother or sister as a child was actually a good thing. According to at least one study on kindergartners, those with siblings got along better with classmates than those without.
3. Birth order matters: Firstborns are supposedly the most successful and the most driven to succeed, according to Jeffrey Kluger, author of The Sibling Effect.
4. The sex of your siblings matters: Boys who grow up with sisters have better listening skills and are more sensitive, Kluger said in an interview with Salon, while girls that grew up with brothers were less serious. Having a sibling of the opposite sex can also help you in romantic relationships with people of the opposite sex.
5. Relationships with our siblings are often the longest ones of our lives: For the most part, relationships with siblings often start and end with life itself, outlasting even our relationships with our parents, as the Siblings Day Foundation points out.
On a final note, here's a quote I like from Erica Goode - "Sibling relationships outlast marriages, survive the death of parents, resurface after quarrels that would sink any friendship. They flourish in a thousand incarnations of closeness and distance, warmth, loyalty and distrust."
