do you get along with ALL of your siblings?

[vash]

ok, no BS. i always take the highroad. ALWAYS! this is about my sister. several months ago, i pissed her off through some misuderstanding. i thought i told her i couldnt do something, and she said i didnt..yada yada yada... whatever. she thinks i flaked on her.

well, i wore my girlfriend down, and got ENGAGED! yes i am engaged. i told my mom, my brother, and tried to call my sister. i called her everyday for 2 weeks. she didnt pick up my calls. i called my bro in law. he blew smoke up my butt, and said, "well, she has been very busy.........". i left messages, everything. it has been months. she has still not called me to say anything. no congrats, no "you idiot" nothing, nada zip. i been hoping to give her the good news, although i know my mom told her already. has time goes on, i am getting pissed. even my mom....grrrr. she said" you must have done something really wrong to piss her off......."

needless to say, i am effen eloping. i want to blow up the highroad. thanks for letting me vent.

cliff

[pwd72s]

Good vent, Cliff.

Between Cindy & I, we have one "sibling"...Cindy's brother, he a religious con man. So, to answer your question..no, she and he do NOT get along.

As to eloping? Cindy & I were married on June 25, 1975...the Reno courthouse with strangers as witnesses. Both of us dressed in Jeans & T shirts.

We're still here.... How many $$$$ weddings have since resulted in divorce? Probably about the same %age as Reno courthouse weddings, I'd surmise.

The wedding isn't the thing. How you work together is.

(edit) When you marry someone, you, in a way, also marry their family. I hope that both of you are strong enough to overcome this obstacle. Your bride should become the most important person in the world to you. You will need to tolerate a lot of family ***** for years. But keep in mind...parents and older siblings usually die before you do...the family problems do diminish, given enough time. Sometimes, that time can be decades.

But what do I know? I'm an old fart...

[masraum]

You can love them, but you don't have to like them.

If she won't even talk to you, she's probably being childish assuming you didn't microwave a pet or something.

[legion]

My sister has been flaky like that my whole life. I can call her, and she won't call me for months.

Oh...and she lives in Chicago and wants to be a social worker...

(She's yet to figure out that she will take a 50% pay-cut from waiting tables and still have student loans to pay off.)

[dad911]

One sister didn't speak to the rest of us for 10 years after my father died. Really drove a wedge between us and mom. Now she is back, but no explanation.

Other sis I had a business relationship with her husband, I wanted out, he didn't, he involved lawyers and we spend 3 years tangled up in the legal system. Will never speak to that 'branch' of the family again.

My Brother, we have been friends and business partners for the last 23 years, no problems.

[Flatbutt1]

IMHO you've done your part. Now live your life but keep that door open to your sister. Remember bro, she's just trying to get through life too. Sometimes people get wrapped up in their own **** and mess up. Good luck with takin' the vows!

oh I forgot, I get along with my brothers now, wasn't always that way though.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Nope. I don't get along with my (only) brother at all. Love? Of course. He's family. Like? Not particularly.

Wife's brother is just sort of "there". Her sister is okay, but in small doses. Her parents are great.

Honestly being separated by a continent is usually a good thing though. We're the only ones from either of our families to have "gone west".

[mattdavis11]

I get along with my 4 older brothers just fine. We have a blast every time we get together.

Congrats on the engagement.

[peppy]

I have four siblings, we are all in the family business together except the younger brother, we do get along, but if there is a problem it's not personal just business.

My younger brother and I fell out about the business and did not speak for 4 or 5 years. One night he was in the shop at my moms house putting a suspension lift on his jeep. I went down and just started helping like nothing ever happened. We've been getting along ever since.

[equality72521]

My sister and I have never gotten along, I'm now 39 and she is 37. I suspect it will be that way for life.

[Christien]

Not to hijack the thread, but how do those of you who do business with family members keep things together if/when things go bad in the business? I own a small business that my father helped me get started in (and is still the major investor in). My first rule, absolute hard and firm, is that I won't do business with family or friends, with my dad as the single exception. I'd rather have a little tiff with my initial turn-down of interest than deal with major fallout in the family if the business were to suffer or completely go under.

We've already heard a few stories of families separated by business, what about some familial success stories, when there were problems at work?

[Gooch1971]

My only brother is about 3 years older and lives about a mile from me. We had normal fights growing up but have always been very close. His 16th birthday truly introduced me to Porsches when he got a 1968 912 . He has had it over 23 years.

The opposite of this would be my mom and uncle. They have not spoken at all in about 7 years and have been estranged for about 25-30 years. My uncle last spoke to my grandfather in about 1996. To our knowledge he is still unaware that his father passed away over two years ago.

[Normy]

NO.

I have one sibling, Chris, my younger brother. Me and him have the same last name.

I'm 6'1" and 150 pounds; Chris, 6 years younger, is 6'1" and 300 pounds. Pork on the hoof...

Me and him lived as roomates in 1999-2000; we wound up fighting too much, and I made him move out in August 2000.

I'm not proud of throwing my brother out of my house, but it needed to be done. He was not able to deal with me man to man, and he was taking drugs- most of them prescription. We had a huge confrontation in my garage one day, when he set a wet wash mit on top of my $375 Porsche 928 service manuals. I yelled at him, he yelled back, we wound up wrestling in the garage. I finally punched him in the mouth and told him I was calling the police. The fat **** climbed into his Golf and went up the street in reverse at about 35 mph- I remember the whine from the transmission.

An hour later my parents returned from Wal-Mart. I told them what had happened, and get this:

The first thing out of their mouths, and a indication of what I went through while growing up with these people in the house:

"What did you do to him?"

I'm not kidding, that was their first reaction.

NOTE: This occurred not at my brothers house, not at my parents house...it occured at MY house. I was silent for about 10 seconds when my parents said "what did you do to him" to me, since the stupidity of their remark was so outside the boundaries of what I expected that I just instantly ignored it.

I glided across the carpet, their words ringing in my ears-

"You, and your ****ing pig woman can get the **** out of my house you *******!"

I'm like a raccoon. I'm pretty tame for the most part, but if you corner me....holy hell watch out~! Well, mom hit the magic button and I exploded. I won't touch my mother, despite the epic ass-beating that she so obviously needs. But I grabbed my father by the shirt, threw him against the wall, and screamed this into his face loud enough for people to hear several blocks away.

Since my parents had spent 37 years watching me just bow to their wishes, they were a bit perplexed as to why I had a sudden "change of attitude". I made sure they knew why!

I still don't get along with my parents. I live 500 miles away for a reason, and I've limited the visits to the Christmas holidays for the most part. Their house is near "Sharks In The Mountains", the premier event on the 928 calender, and I'm trying to figure out how I can make it my one and only trip to NC for the year.

[dad911]

Originally Posted by Christien

Not to hijack the thread, but how do those of you who do business with family members keep things together if/when things go bad in the business?

IMHO the most important thing in any partnership is to plan for the 'breakup' when the partnership is formed.

Our current LLC documents outline buyout and exit strategies, and require mediation and arbitration before litigation.

[dad911]

Normy, same thing happened in my family, and I have seen it with friends. Parents, especially mothers, throw their support to the 'weak child'

[Joeaksa]

One Brother and Sister are my best friends... the other Sister is just plain different. The kind that dances alone to music that no one else hears. Have learned to live with it but took a while... like years.

Joe

[Hugh R]

My bro lives three doors down from me. He's my best friend. My triplet sister (the other one died in a car accident 35 y/o) and I get along well, but we don't see each other very much, once a year maybe

[Evans, Marv]

Since my family was pretty disfunctional in emotional terms, we all pretty much have remained strangers our whole lives. I've always thought it very strange since that's not my natural nature.
I talk to my two sisters once in a while, mostly when something arises like a problem with my mother's health (86 yrs. old). My youngest sister hasn't talked to my parents (father died 16 yrs. ago) in over 30 years, and I tell her what's up with the rest of the family when we talk. After decades of taking the initiative to communicate, I've finally decided to let things be.

[Isabo]

I have a younger sister. We get on great, speak on the phone most weeks, e-mail a lot and visit when we can. Helped as well that our husbands get on really well together.

[JCF]

What was it Tolstoy wrote ?

All happy families are alike.
All unhappy ones different each in their own way.

Being of Italian descent we all get along great in my family.