Question for those with step siblings

This may be sensitive, I don't know because I don't have step siblings. But how do you feel about your step siblings as opposed to your biological siblings? Meaning...do you feel a "difference" or do you flat out consider them a brother/sister just like a biological one? Also, at what age did they become your step sibling?

I asked my DH this question the other day since he has a couple of step siblings and I'm just curious to hear some other responses.

Re: Question for those with step siblings

My DH has 2 half brothers and a sister...
And although i do see him closest to his natural youngest brother
But is also closer to his half sibs that his oldest natural brother....

(did that make any sense at all)

I think he is just closest to the one he has most in common with nto the fact that they are half or natural

Message edited 1/24/2006 2:24:32 PM.

Re: Question for those with step siblings

My step sibilings have been there since I was 7 years old....since thats most of my life we consider each other "real" sisters.....however we never lived together. They stayed at our house every weekend and we went on family vacations together.

I am closest with my biological sister, only because we grew up in the same house together.

Re: Question for those with step siblings

See... I think it's a little different with half siblings because there is still a biological connection...but who knows because DH has 4 step sibs and 1 half sister but he is definitely closer to one of his step sisters than his half sister.

Maybe it has more to do with which sibs they lived with and for how long... since my DH never lived with his half sister but did live with the step sister.

Re: Question for those with step siblings

Re: Question for those with step siblings

Re: Question for those with step siblings

Re: Question for those with step siblings

My DH has 2 step sisters and one step brother (I think). We met one step sister once. His dad remarried a few years ago, and everyone lives in Fla (except us!).

Re: Question for those with step siblings

Re: Question for those with step siblings

DH doesn't have step siblings, but he has a half brother who's 6 months old. DH doesn't consider the baby to be his brother. If you asked him how many siblings he has, he wouldn't even mention his half brother. It's sad, but within about 1 1/2 years, DH's parents got divorced, his father remarried, and new wife had a baby. DH is close with his 3 other siblings.

Re: Question for those with step siblings

OMG, there is no comparison at all for me. I am soooo close to my biological sister, but I am closer to my most random of friends more than I am to any of my step siblings. My father met my step mother when I was 17 and she had two daughters and my mother met her fiancee when I was 19. He had a daughter and a son! We just can't force it... I dont feel that they are my "siblings" at all!!!!!

Re: Question for those with step siblings

I have 2 step brothers...both younger than I. The youngest one I feel is a real brother. I've known him since he's like 4 years old and when we all came together as a family, I was the one who cared for him after school-took him off the bus, made him his snack, helped with his h.w.

When I graduated high school he wrote in the card to not go away to school

When I had Aly...he wrote in the card how great a mom I would be since he already knew cuz I was his 2nd mommy. Talk about a 19 year old GUY making someone cry.....

The other one is family, but we're just not close like that.

Re: Question for those with step siblings

Well for my DH and his family, after their mom died and dad remarried, they had an extremely hard time dealing with this part of the equation. DH was 16, his brother was 23, his other brother 26, and his sister was 28. To this day there is a clear difference between biological and step.

Re: Question for those with step siblings

I have one biological brother (younger) and two half brothers (younger). My biol. brother & i visited our two half brothers every weekend from the day they were born until we left for college & have become very close. I am close to all of them. Spending every weekend together and going through family crises together has brought us all close. I adore my younger brothers.

I also have two older step brothers who did not live with us and we rarely saw them- I am not close with them at all.

For me, it was all about growing up together.

Re: Question for those with step siblings

My step-brother has been my step-brother since I was 6. Our relationship has always been kind of, well, weird. I think there was a lot of resent when we were younger because I got to live with his dad, and he didn't. He was an 'every other weekend brother' for most of when i was growing up, but then lived with us for 3/4 years of when he was in hs. He just kind of spent most of that time in his room, being a teenage boy. And then when he graduated went off to the navy for 6 years, and by the time i came back i was living in va.

We've tried to spend time together, but it's always just been really akward and strained. Maybe that will change in the future, who knows.

As for my younger siblings (half) I have a pretty good relationship with them, although it was different because we're 6 and 8 1/2 years apart. For the last 4 or 5 years i've been able to relate to my brother more than my sister, since we had more similar interests. I've always been a bit jealous of them since they've always been so insanely spoiled. For example, my sister constantly getting expensive stuff done to her hair for several years at no cost to her, whereas i had to save my money to get highlights at 16. My first car was an 88 mazda, which i paid for, my brother's is a 2006 civic coupe which was handed to him, as he berated his grandfather at the dealership.

it kind of made up for it, though, when my father told me 'you're the only kid i'm proud of, and i didn't even really raise you.'

It hasn't always been perfect, but i've survived the processes of growing up not knowing if i were the only, oldest, or middle child.

Re: Question for those with step siblings

I have a step brother and a step sister. I was about 20 when my mom married my stepdad, so I never lived with my step brother or step sister, and they both live out of state.
We get along fine, but I'd compare the relationship with them to a relationship with a cousin.
My sister on the other hand, I am EXTREMELY close to

Re: Question for those with step siblings

I am close to my step sister. She is older than me (she's 34 and I'm 30). I've known her since I was about 5 but our parents didn't marry until I was 20.
I love my step sister- but it is a different love- the kind of love you give by choice- because you want to, not the kind of love you give because you have to (which is often the case in blood relationships).

I feel the same way about my step father- I would almost dare say that my feelings of love are stronger for him than for my biological dad.

I have a half-brother and a half-sister- and I love them both too- but in the "blood relative" type of way. Maybe it's because they are much younger (19 and 16). Maybe it's because I didn't really live with them. I am just starting to develop a close relationship with my brother (the 19 year old)- but quite often the relationship borders on 'mothering" instead of being a sister (which I am really not sure how to be).

Re: Question for those with step siblings

My DH has step siblings and he barely even knows their names....they are all adults

Re: Question for those with step siblings

i have 2 step sisters and a step brother and they have never treated my mother very well. my mom had nothing to do with the break up of there parents marriage and even met my stepfather years later yet they are adults acting like children still. they arent my type of people and i just dislike them in general. im sure alot has to do with the way they treat my mom but in general i just think there bad people. if they were my blood brother and sisters i would dislike them as well