National Siblings Day
It’s a fact! By the time children turn 11 they spend 33 per cent of their spare time with siblings. Even in adulthood it’s thought we spend an average of 11 hours a week with one another
We spend so much time with siblings as youngsters, it’s no wonder they have the potential to shape us. A US study found having a sibling encouraged good behaviour and kind deeds in children more than having loving parents. Research also showed growing up with a sibling of the opposite sex makes you better at striking up and maintaining a conversation with romantic dates.
Firstborn siblings tend to have a higher IQ and a study found 43 per cent of all company CEOs are eldest children. More than half of US presidents (such as JF Kennedy, left) were middle, or second eldest children, thought to be more adept at diplomacy, resilience and independence, despite the popular concept of ‘middle child syndrome’ suggesting middle children feel left out. Younger siblings describe themselves as being more chilled and less serious than their older siblings.
Wilbur and Orville Wright were brothers who, with the help of their sister Katharine, invented the first successfully flown aeroplane. The Grimm brothers published the greatest ever collection of fairytales; the Brontë sisters became titans of literature; the Marx brothers were masters of comedy, and George and Ira Gershwin composed together. Nowadays we have the sporting Williams’ sisters (above) and in entertainment, Warren Beatty and Shirley MacLaine (right).
You might think you have a big family... until you read this! No one’s had as many siblings as the Vassilyev family in Russia who, in the 18th Century, broke the record for the greatest number of children born to one mother. Valentina Vassilyev gave birth to 69 children made up of 16 pairs of twins, seven triplets and four sets of quadruplets! Meanwhile, more recently proud parents Ronnie and Sienna Budden broke the UK record for siblings with the smallest age gap, born just six and a half months apart!
Female African elephants stick together all their lives, looking after each other’s babies and learning mothering from their older sisters. And if a baby chimpanzee is orphaned, older siblings take on the responsibility to raise them. Shrew siblings are so keen to stick together they go around in a ‘caravan’. By holding the fur above their siblings’ tails with their teeth (shown below) they ensure they never lose one each other!
Did you know? National Siblings Day was founded by American Claudia Evart to honour the memory of her brother and sister who both died young. It is celebrated on April 10, the birthday of Claudia’s late sister, and is now growing in popularity in the UK, Australia and Japan