My Blog

I started this blog as an assignment for my Journalism class. At the beginning, I wasn’t really sure how I was going to like it. I was worried about trying to keep up with my posts and I was worried about what I was going to write about. I knew the general topic but I wasn’t really sure where to go from there.

Despite these worries, I’ve really enjoyed the opportunity that I’ve had creating this blog. I really enjoyed the fact that I got to kind of share my opinions based on my brothers at home and how I got to see other people’s opinions as well.

I’ll admit that this blog was a lot of work. I did end up getting stressed quite a bit while working on a few posts. Especially when I had a hard time finding something to write about for certain posts. Like the newsworthy piece that I did on sibling tuition. It took me almost two class periods to try to find something in the news that had just been released that related to siblings. It’s safe to say that I was getting a bit frustrated.

I guess the main reason why I liked t making a blog was because I got to choose a topic that was close to me. I was able to write about siblings and families, both topics that mean the world to me.

I actually learned quite a bit by making this blog. I learned a lot about how the order in which you were born affects your personality. I think that that was one of the most interesting topics that I researched. I found it odd that something as simple as the order that you were born can influence things like the occupation you decide to do for the rest of your life.

I also learned a lot about sibling college tuition. That alone is information that will help me and my family a lot in the future. I have four older brothers and at least three of us will all be going to college at the same time. The fact that some financial institutions offer siblings the opportunities to get a discount if you’re going to the college at the same time could potentially help my family save lots of money in the future.

Most of all, I learned a lot more about my family in general. I interviewed my brother and I was able to see important family really was to him. It was really strange because my brother had never really opened up to me like that before. Now I know that I mean as much to him as he does to me.  

Overall, I think that this assignment was a lot of fun to do and very educational. I don’t think I would have ever learned the things that I did if I hadn’t actually had to go out and research it. I definitely plan to continue my blog so I promise that this isn’t my last post. I hope you’ve enjoyed so far

Top Ten Reasons Why Teenage Siblings Fight

Teenage siblings fight for many reasons. Here are just a few that made my top ten reasons why. Hope you enjoy! (:

10. They spend too much time together. Some siblings are extremely close and spend a lot of time together. Naturally, they’re going to get to a point where they’re just going to need some space. If you spend too much time with anybody for too long, you’re bond to clash heads and get into and argument eventually. The best thing to do is just give each other space to cool off for a bit.

9. Frustration. Sometimes, the sibling that the person picked a fight with didn’t even do anything wrong. If that person had a particularly stressful day then came home, ready to break, any little thing could set them off. Unfortunately, sometimes it’s a sibling and they end up getting into a fight. The best thing to do, is just walk away when you can tell that another sibling is frustrated and just wants to be left alone.

8. Taking their stuff without permission. I know that when my brothers go into my room and take something without asking me first, I get a little agitated. Especially because I’m a very private person and I don’t like it when people go into my room. A lot of people are like that so if someone does take something of theirs without asking first, they get mad. This could end in a huge fight over possessions.

7. Competition. Siblings like to have contests to see who’s the fastest, strongest and so on. These competitions could potentially end in a fight because someone thinks that the other cheated in some way or something of that nature. It seems to happen especially often when siblings are playing video games together. Somehow, someone always cheats.

6. Pressure. Say you have a family where every sibling has played basketball and each and every one of them started as the shooting guard every year that they’re played. If there’s a younger sibling who doesn’t like basketball or just isn’t good at it, they might feel like they’re going to let everybody in their family down. There’s that pressure they feel to live up to their siblings that they might lash out at them because of it. They might blame them for being so good and for setting the standards so high.

5. Jealousy. Sometimes, the big green monster just wants to come out and play. Jealousy is a natural thing to feel when somebody has something that you want. Especially if it’s a sibling. If they just got the game that you’ve been wanted for the past month, you may be a little upset and take it out on them because they have the game.

4. Hormones. Teenagers have hormones. What more is there to say. One second they’ll be best friends with their sibling and the next second they’ll be jumping down their throat because they dropped chip in their bed. It’s a natural thing that you can’t control, yet starts a lot of fights.

3. Personality clashes. Some siblings are just so different that they just don’t get along with each other. They may just not know how to meet halfway and how to get along with somebody that is so different. They may feel as if they aren’t meant to get along so they’re not even going to try to.

2. Parental favoritism. Even if they’re just imagining it, most of the time, a child feels like a parent favors a certain sibling over them. It could be as simple as the parent will let one sibling stay up later than the other one. To the one that has to go to bed earlier, the parent favors the one that gets to stay up later. This causes resentment towards that sibling which could cause a fight to break out.

1. Inequality. Now this is something I know quite a bit about. Being the only girl in the family, I get treated pretty unequally. When my brothers were my age they had a LOT more freedom than I do now. My parents excuse? I’m a girl and they’re boys. If a child feels like they are being treated unfairly compared to a sibling, then resentment builds up and the siblings end up fighting.

　

　

So there you go! Here’s my top ten list for why teenage siblings fight!

Sibling Conflict, Good Or Bad?

The website, www.familycenterweb.org, claims that sibling arguments are actually beneficial to children. They claim that the “…unique bond that occurs between the siblings, although often conflictual, provides individuals with tremendous opportunities for better understanding interpersonal relations and how to resolve issues of conflict.”

They go on to explain a little more about why siblings feel the need to disagree and why it’s important that they do have these arguments.

“Children are freer to disagree with siblings than with other members of their social networks such as with peers or parents. Peer relationships may not withstand repeated disagreements and conflicts with parents are usually "unwinnable" because of their parents' greater power and resources within the family. Often children will test specific opinions and behaviors on their siblings, rather that risking peer rejection or punishment by parents. Therefore, sibling relationships provide a safe venue for children to learn much about what behaviors are socially acceptable and successful during heated moments of interpersonal conflict. As a result, elements of great warmth and great conflict often co-exist in developmentally normal sibling relationships.”

The next question that most parents ask is if and when they should intervene on their children’s arguments. www.familycenterweb.org, goes on to say how too often, “…parents intervene in sibling arguments too early, reducing the chances for children to learn how to resolve their conflicts on their own.”

The website continues on by saying that if parents allow their children to engage in constructive conflict, they “…may increase their children’s ability to resolve disagreements on their own and therefore, [they will] improve a child’s ability to problem solve with peers and others outside of their home in the future.”

Another website, www.calmerparenting.com, has a completely opposite view on the subject of sibling conflict.

They claim that if siblings are constantly bickering and calling each other names, it will “…affect children’s’ self-image, and they [will] begin to feel bad about themselves.” Also, if siblings are constantly bickering, “…home life becomes far less pleasant for everyone in this negative atmosphere.”

They go on to say how “…sibling relationships affect peer relationships.” and that the “…social skills which will enable your child to make and keep friends are learned and practiced at home.” Which means that if two siblings are arguing at home and nothing is done about it, they will assume that it is a good behavior and they will use this same behavior with their peers. This could potentially make it so they have trouble making and keeping friends.

This website also suggests that parents should intervene as soon as possible in sibling conflicts and that they should “…nip potential problems in the bud when [they] can see that things are staring to go wrong.”

So, one website says that siblings conflicts are healthy and that parents usually intervene too early while the other says that sibling conflicts are anything but healthy and that parents should intervene as soon as possible. The question is, which one do you follow?

In my opinion, I believe that you should decide what to do based on the conflict itself. If it’s a conflict that both siblings could potentially work out by themselves then I would say to not intervene unless it gets out of control. Let them work it out and build on that problem-solving technique. On the other hand, if it’s a conflict that can do nothing but get worse, then I would intervene and help them solve the problem.

Matt D'Angelo's Views On Siblings

As you may know, my blog is about the general subject of siblings. So being that all of my posts have had my personal opinions in them, I’ve decided to interview my brother on his views on the subject. I thought that it’d be nice to have a males point of view for this post.

My brother, Matthew D‘Angelo, has three older brothers and a younger sister. I wanted to see how he feels about the relationships that he has with them and how things would be different if he was an only child, or if he only had brothers and so on.

The first thing I asked him was how it felt to be in a family with so many siblings? He responded by saying how it “…has it’s ups and downs.” He goes on to admit that “…if you spend too much time with anyone, once in a while, you bump heads. Luckily, I’m close with my family so it’s basically like living with friends.”

I went on to ask him if being the youngest male in the house is an advantage or a disadvantage? He thought for a moment and finally decided that it’s “…more of an advantage because I can learn from the older ones mistakes.”

The next thing I asked him was what’s the best and worst thing about having so many siblings? The best thing for him is that “…it’s like living with your best friends.” Unfortunately, the worst thing is that “…it’s going to make it harder to leave home and become my own man.”

I then asked him who he felt the most protective over and why? He started off by saying that he’s “…protective over all of them because they’re my family.” He then went on to say that he feels particularly protective over “…my sister because she’s the youngest and the only girl.”

We all know that siblings fight. So I asked Matt what he did to keep from fighting with his siblings so much. He said that what he does is “…stay away from them and keep my mouth closed.

I got curious as to how he felt having siblings affected his life. I asked him and he responded by saying how “…having a big family basically taught me that family will always have your back and that you can always rely on them so you always have that cushion.” He continued by saying how he couldn’t imagine his life without siblings. To him, “…life would be boring as an only child.”

The next thing I asked was how he thought his life would be different if he only had brothers. He thought for a little while then claimed that he “…wouldn’t know 100 percent how to treat a girl.” Because he has a sister, he simply “…treats girls how I would want my sister to be treated. Whether it’s just being friends with the girls or dating them.”

The last thing I asked Matt, was if there was anything else he wanted to add about the general topic of siblings. He responded by saying the following:

“ I’m blessed to have the siblings I have because we’re so close and they’re my best friends…I see some families and kids who don’t have the same privileges, which is why family is the most important thing.”

I must say that I learned a lot about my brother through this interview. I realized just how much family really means to him. Although we have our moments, it’s pretty obvious that we’ll stick together no matter what.

My Review On "The Parent Trap."

In this post, I’m reviewing the movie “The Parent Trap.” This movie was released in 1998 and it stars Lindsay Lohan. If you haven’t seen this movie, then I suggest that you do. This movie is a comedy about two identical twins that meet each other for the first time at summer camp. After playing many pranks on each other, they are forced to stay in a cabin together where they realize that they actually have a lot in common. After bonding over Oreos and peanut butter, they come up with a sneaky plan to switch places after camp and try to get their parents back together.

Now you may be asking why in the world would I review this movie for my blog? Well this movie is a perfect demonstration of sibling relationships and how far some siblings would go for each other and their families. It truly shows how sometimes, siblings can get on your nerves and drive you crazy, but in the end, you love them all the same. Even though Annie and Hallie didn’t even know each other until they met one summer at summer camp, they still ended up being best friends and loving each other like they had known each other, as sisters, their entire life.

I know that my brothers and I pull pranks on each other, we fight, we get on each others last nerve, but when it comes down to it, we always have each others back, just like they did in this movie.

Annie and Hallie really show how far they’ll go just so that they can get their parents back together and so they can live together and know what it’s like to have a sister. They get to the point where they push their father’s fiancé into a river just to try to get them to break up so that they can be a family again. They even went through all the trouble of finding and renting the same boat that their parents got married on to try to show them that they are meant to be together.

They were willing to trade places and go to other sides of the world for each other and for their parents even though their parents lied to them and they just met each other. Now in reality, two twins that just met each other probably wouldn’t go as far as trading places and going to other sides of the world. So the movie does exaggerate the bond between siblings just a bit, but despite this, this movie does a great job of showing that, no matter what, family is always there for you and that it is the most important thing.

My Brother.

If you have siblings, then you know that you’d do anything for them. When you see them sad or hurt, you just want to make them smile. You want to do something. Anything.

Chances are, if you have siblings, then you’ve been in a situation where you’ve felt like there’s nothing that you can do to help. It’s an awful feeling that you wish would just go away and never come back. Unfortunately, it’s a feeling that I know very well.

My brother, Matt, was diagnosed with a lung proficiency disease and a severe immune deficiency on September 28, 2005.

My brother is only one year, three months and seventeen days older than me. He was 10 years old when he was diagnosed. Being that I was only 9 years old, I didn’t really know what was going on and I didn’t really understand what was wrong with him. All I knew is that it wasn’t normal and that it was hurting my brother.


I remember seeing my parents cry for the very first time when they brought my brother home from the doctor that day. I was so confused. I just thought that Matt had something like a cold. I thought he would simply be sick for a week or two and then he’d be fine. Then my parents explained to me and my brothers that it was something way more serious.

As I started to get older, I started to begin to understand more about what was going on. It suddenly became real. Matt was really sick and it seemed as if there was nothing that I, or anyone else in my family, could do about it.

All I wanted to do was to make him better. I wanted to do anything to make it all go away, to make it so he wasn’t sick anymore, but I couldn‘t. It felt like all I could do was sit back and pray that some doctor somewhere in the world would come up with some type of medicine to make him all better.

After he was diagnosed, we began drift apart a bit. I constantly felt like there was nothing that I could do to help him. I felt like I had failed him in some way. He had always been there for me ever since we were little. When I would get hurt, he would do anything in his power to make me feel better, and I felt like there was nothing that I could do to make him feel better.

Then I began to think about what he would do if we had switched situations. I realized that he would just do anything in his power to just make me laugh. He would do anything to take my mind off of everything, even if it were only for a second. From that moment on, I was determined to just keep him laughing. To this day, my mission is to just keep a smile on my brothers face.

I guess that what I’m trying to say is that, although there was nothing I could do to cure Matt, I found out that just keeping him laughing and smiling helped. Our family has never been closer or stronger. Yeah, it’s been tough on all of us, Matt especially, but we get through it. We’re always playing games together, laughing, and just having fun. We are always there for each other and we truly cherish the meaning of family.

Matt’s health condition has improved a lot since he was first diagnosed, but this is something that he will live with for the rest of his life. I must say though, that despite everything he’s been through, Matt is the strongest person I’ve ever met. If you were to just meet him randomly on the street and have a conversation with him, you would have no idea that he was sick. He doesn’t let it control his life or bring him down, he just goes on like nothings wrong. I admire him so much for that.

So if you ever have that feeling like there’s nothing you can do, just be there for that person. As long as they know that you’ll have their back, you’re helping them.

How To Get Along With Your Siblings.

Now I know from personal experience that getting along with your siblings can sometimes be a challenge. Although stopping fighting completely is nearly impossible, there are some ways to make sure that it doesn’t happen as much and how to resolve an existing conflict. So in this post, I’m going to give you pointers on how to get along with your siblings, even if they’re driving you absolutely insane. First, I’m going to give you the pointers that http://kidshealth.org suggests. Next, I’m going to give you pointers that students from my school that have siblings suggest. Lastly, I’m going to share with you how I get along with my four older brothers.

http://kidshealth.org is a website that gives out information on “…health, behavior, and development from before birth through the teen years.” In their article, “Getting Along With Brothers and Sisters,” they stated three main tips on how to keep from fighting with your sibling. They are as follows:

·         “Take a deep breath and think a bit. Try to figure out if you are angry with the person or just frustrated with the situation.”

·         “Remind yourself that you have special talents. Your sister may have won an art contest, but you might be better basketball, or math, or singing.”

·         “Try to congratulate your siblings on their achievements and share their happiness. If you do this for them, they’ll be more likely to do it for you.”

After researching this, I decided to interview some students from my school to see what they do to help get along with their siblings.

I interviewed six students from my school, three girls and three boys. I asked them to share how they get along with their siblings and what they suggest to do and this is what they said:

·         Talk to your sibling about what is bothering you.

·         Try not to start the conflict. If it is avoidable, avoid it.

·         If they are really bothering you, then just ignore them.

·         To avoid conflict, spend time together by watching TV, movies, or by playing a game together.

·         If you’re dealing with a younger sibling, one thing you can so is just give into their needs. If they need help doing something, just try your best to help them to the best of your abilities instead of getting frustrated and complaining.

·         Another thing you can do is if you and your sibling are going through a time where you’re constantly fighting, just give them some space and stay out of their way. Try your best to just not bug them. Chances are, if you give them space, you can both just cool off and eventually the conflict will be forgotten.

·         Bond over things that you both have in common. If there is a certain activity that you both love to do, like skiing and snowboarding, then try to do that activity as much as possible.

·         If things get particularly heated, then just walk away. That ends the conflict right there.

·         And lastly, always have their back. If you have the opportunity to stick up for them, then do it. They’re your family, that’s all that matters in the end

Now personally, living with four older brothers and being the youngest and the only female is quite interesting. Especially because, when I was younger, my brothers decided that I would be the perfect little girl to tease nonstop. They used to get such a kick out of it too! Them and their friends would just sit there and call me silly names and hold things out of my reach and just laugh at me because of how I reacted. Now I’ll be the first to admit that I acted extremely childish when they did this to me. I would cry and scream on top of my lungs and that would only fuel them even more! They had so much fun with it that they would all start chanting “pterodactyl” on the top of their lungs. Then I realized something, if I ignored them, then they stopped. If they didn’t get a reaction out of me, then it wasn’t fun anymore. So throughout the years I’ve come up with certain tips that helped me keep from fighting with my brothers.

·         If they’re teasing you, then just ignore them. It may seem like a hard thing to do at the time but, in the end, it really pays off. If they can’t get a reaction then it’s not fun for them anymore.

·         Talk to them about stuff that you know that they like. Even if there’s something that you like, but they don’t, don’t bring it up. It will take away that chance that you’ll get into an argument.

·         If you’re feeling really ambitious and have some spare time, you could always just bake them some brownies. Everyone loves brownies. (:

·         When all else fails, the best thing to do is to just walk away. If you put distance in between you and them, there is no way that you can end up fighting. It will give you both a chance to cool down and think about the situation more clearly.

So these are just a few tips on how to get along with your siblings. They work well for me and these students so I hope they work well for you too. And always remember one thing: No matter how crazy your siblings drive you, they’re family and they’ll always have your back and be there for you. I know that sometimes my brothers drive me crazy but, at the end of the day, they’re my brothers and I love them to death. They’re always there when I need advice or someone to talk to.

I hope this helps you and I hope you enjoyed! Good luck! (: