half, step or full blood

[Roseblum15]

I began thinking about this tonight, I hope that this post makes sense.

I have one half-brother who is the light of my life basically. Then I also have another half-brother and half-sister who I have never seen they basically don't exist to me.

So what I am wondering is should the labels like half brother, step brother or just brother come into play? or should they always just be called your brother?

Then how does it go if you have real blood siblings and then others from the split marriage. Do the blood siblings mean more to you than the others?

Just wondering what others think of this...

[AlphaSigOU]

Well, I've got both a younger blood brother and a half-brother. Like any good sibling, we both put up with calling each other such wonderful terms of endearment such as 'putz', 'sh*t-for-brains', 'moron', among other things.

On the other hand, my half-brother pops in and out of the woodwork occasionally, but we're not that close.

Any way you slice it, the half-brother is still called 'my brother'.

[PhiMuJulia]

i would consider them your brothers and sisters, techinically they may be a "half" but if you share a parent your blood, they are your kin

[tnxbutterfly]

I have a half-brother and and half-sister. I've never met my half-brother and have only met my half-sister 1 time. Needless to say we are not close at all. I don't see us becoming close at all. We have no contact whatsoever. I consider myself an only child

[DeltaSigStan]

I have nothing but half/step siblings. 1 half brother, 3 half sisters, 1 step sister. I always say "half brother" or "step sister". Guess I never really thought about it, since I had such a wierd up bringing.

[polarpi]

The first time I talk about a sibling, I'll probably say that they're my step sibling (I have 5 step-sisters and 2 step-brothers), but after that I usually say just "my brother" or "my sister" (it's the same way with my nephews, nieces, aunts, uncles, etc from both of my parent's remarriages)

[Hootie]

I remember when I was younger I babysat for a family that was aquainted with mine. The two children were younger but old enough to be self-sufficient. I remember going down the hallway and seeing the family photos on the wall and wondered who the two very much older children were. The girl explained they were her half brother and sister but they were SO much older they were in college and didn't live with them anymore.

So that was the first time I'd ever heard of that term. It was sorta weird though to see a family where the halfs were so far apart in age.

I guess I thought I'd throw that in cuz I'm not sure if that's mostly the case with other families.

[winnieb]

i am my mom's only child, therefore i consider myself and only child--- but i do have a half-brother and a step brother. my half brother and i are very close. i very much consider him my brother--however, my stepbrother and i are not close. he is the bad seed, for lack of a better term. i do not want him called my brother--he is a step brother. as mean as it sounds i don;t want people thinking we are of the same blood.


-wendi

[AlphaFrog]

OK....this may seem irrelevant...but hey, we call those people we take our vows with our brothers and sisters...and we don't worry that they'er not actual blood...and ideally we should treat our soroity/fraternity siblings like actual siblings...so i guess what I'm saying is that us Greeks don't worry about the "label" that we give to our Greek siblings, so why worry about the ones we give our actual siblings... (but then again I have no siblings whatsoever except my Greek ones, so I guess I don't know what I'm talking about, oh well)

[White_Chocolate]

It depends
Figuratively speaking, I have 2 half brothers and a half sister
My half sister is my best friend in the whole world
The only reason we aren't related is because my dad died 4 days before I was born
So, my mom remarried
My half brothers are my dad's sons
The oldest one was in middle school when I was old enough to know him
The youngest one hated my guts and thought I was spoiled(still does)
So, the oldest one didn't get close to me until my graduation
He drove from Seattle to Georgia to be at my graduation
Even though he hasn't talked to me since I was 8
Now, he's almost my best friend
The youngest one abhors my existence and I don't conversate with him at all
Plus, he's a bum
So, I have one half brother and a brother and sister

Originally posted by alphagam-alum
i am my mom's only child, therefore i consider myself and only child--- but i do have a half-brother and a step brother. my half brother and i are very close. i very much consider him my brother--however, my stepbrother and i are not close. he is the bad seed, for lack of a better term. i do not want him called my brother--he is a step brother. as mean as it sounds i don;t want people thinking we are of the same blood.

Sounds like we grew up in the same family I am my mom's only child, so I think of myself as an only child too. I have two older half-brothers (my dad's sons from his first marriage) but I didn't really grow up with them. The oldest is 11 years older than me, so by the time I was old enough to know anything, he was grown up and on his own. The other one is only 5 years older than me. I know him a little bit better, and sometimes will just call him my brother, without the "half" designation.

I really like my younger half brother. He's a good guy, and I wish we were closer. My oldest half brother though... well, as far as I'm concerned he doesn't really exist. He gave my Dad hell... and he's a bad seed anyway (always in/out of jail, lots of different kids by different women, etc). So yeah... I don't want people thinking he's my brother.

[Rio_Kohitsuji]

I have 3 "full blooded" sisters and 1 "half" sister. None of my older sisters consider the "half" a real sister, I'm the only one that does. It all depends on their situation verses yours.

[AchtungBaby80]

OK, get this--I have four sisters, but none of them are "full" sisters. The oldest is actually a step-sister, the next-oldest is my step-half-sister (her dad and my stepdad are ex-husbands-in-law...think about it, it does make sense), my younger sister is a half sister, and I have another younger sister who's a half who lives with my father. However, I don't use labels like "half" or "step," because I've found that people will want a big long explanation of how everyone's related, and it's very difficult without drawing a picture. So, I just say they're my sisters.

When my oldest sister got married, I was so thrilled because then I got a brother! Sometimes I get lazy and don't add the "in-law," so it confuses people even more. I was telling my roommate once that my brother had been a Delt, and she was like, "Huh? Since when do you have a brother?"

Originally posted by AchtungBaby80
When my oldest sister got married, I was so thrilled because then I got a brother! Sometimes I get lazy and don't add the "in-law," so it confuses people even more. I was telling my roommate once that my brother had been a Delt, and she was like, "Huh? Since when do you have a brother?"

Ha! I do that too... I was really excited when my one half-brother got married, and I tend to refer to his wife as my sister and nothing else. So I'll often mention my half-brother and sister's wedding, or even worse, my brother and sisters wedding... it leads to some strange looks

[Peaches-n-Cream]

I just have 2 sisters.

I have a huge extended family. I must have over 50 first cousins, second cousins, once removed, twice removed, etc. I find it easier to say just cousin.