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siblings

Only child asks her friends what it's like to grow up with siblings.

Ahhh, siblings. Sometimes they're your best friends and other times your living room turns into an MMA octagon over the remote control. If you grew up with brothers and sisters, it's hard to imagine what it would be like to be an only child. (That's not to say you didn't dream about it when your sister stole your favorite shirt for the 30th time.)

If you didn't grow up with siblings, however, it can feel pretty impossible to imagine what life is like with them. While those of us with siblings sometimes daydreamed about being an only, only children likely also had moments where they dreamt of having a brother or sister, not realizing the literal torment siblings can inflict on each other.

TikTok creator Lonnie IIV recently posted a video of himself with two other friends seemingly out to lunch. One of the friends asks what it was like to grow up with siblings and in less than a minute, she realized she lucked out being an only child because her two guy friends gave her a crash course in sibling behavior.


"She got an entire childhood in less than a minute."

3 young boys stand on concrete next to each other during the day

Siblinghood is a weird experience.

Photo by Max Titov on Unsplash

In the clip, Lonnie asked if she wanted her drink but then promptly told her she didn't want it before swirling his fingers around in her cup. This prompted the other friend to throw his balled-up straw paper at her before repeatedly dipping chopsticks into her soup. The woman just laughed and looked seemingly confused at the nonsense her guy friends were displaying. Of course, no sibling experience would be complete without the classic "stop touching me" added for a little pizzazz.

"She got an entire childhood in less than a minute," one user wrote.

A different user said, "This is so accurate."

The comment thread was full of childhood sibling...nostalgia?

two girls stand in front of a camping tent

Growing up with siblings can also be the best thing ever.

Photo by Colin + Meg on Unsplash

Other commenters started sharing the things they did to their siblings or vice versa. The comment thread was full of sibling...nostalgia? Seems weird to look back on those memories with fondness, yet here we are.

Honestly, my brother used to ask if he could have a bite of my food, and when I said no, he would just lick it before asking again. In turn, when my brothers wouldn't let me play video games with them, I would pinch my arm until it turned red and run out of the room crying to tell my mom they hit me.

Kids are weird, but thankfully there are usually doses of love in between the madness. If you grew up with siblings, you'll likely appreciate the video below. Or it'll give you flashbacks. It's a toss-up. If you don't have siblings, you may feel the need to have us evaluated. We turned out alright...mostly.

@lonnieiiv

Don’t ask, just bring it

This article originally appeared two years ago.

Photo by Hu Chen on Unsplash

Meeting a new sibling can go either way, but this big brother's reaction was the sweetest.

We've all seen our fair share of older-sibling-meets-new-baby videos, which are generally pretty darn adorable. But once in a while, one comes along that socks us square in the heart and has us desperately reaching for a tissue.

Brace yourselves, friends, because this is one video that truly requires a tissue warning.

Shared by @brianaarielle89 on TikTok, the video shows a preschooler dressed up in a dinosaur costume entering a hospital room to meet his newborn sibling for the first time. He asks, "Mommy, where is Hudson?" and is guided over to the cot where his baby brother is bundled.

At first, he walks right past him. But then he turns, sees him and simply stares for a few seconds.


A man's voice asks, "What do you think?" and oh, the emotion in his little voice as he breaks into tears.

"Hudsooooon!" he wails. "Hiiii!" And then he cries out the sweetest BFF declaration you'll ever hear.

@brianaarielle89

#fyp #viral #heartwarming #siblings #brothers #babiesoftiktok

Oof, right? This is the purest love there is. What a little sweetheart and what a lucky little brother Hudson is.

I regret to inform you that there is a part two, which is also adorable.

@brianaarielle89

#fyp #babiesoftiktok #brothers #feelings #happycry

"I'm happy crying, okay?" Okay, kiddo. So is everyone else now.

Of course, not all young children are overcome with happiness when they get to meet their younger siblings. In fact, some kids can be downright hostile about it, asking the parents if they can send the baby back or acting out in anger and jealousy. Depending on their age, older siblings might demand more attention than usual or regress in certain developmental milestones, such as potty training.

For parents whose young children didn't gush with love when they met a new sibling, don't worry. Jealousy of babies is totally normal and doesn't mean your kids won't get along eventually. It just takes time to adjust to a new reality and a new dynamic in the household. Dr. Hindie M. Klein recommends tips like referring to the new baby as "our baby," letting the older sibling help in caring for the baby (in ways that are age-appropriate, of course) and providing some special parental one-on-one time with the older child to help kids more easily adjust to a new baby in the house.

Even baby Hudson and his big-hearted bro here will surely have sibling spats of their own over the years. Sibling love is complicated, but it's great to see it start off on such a beautiful note.


This article originally appeared on 9.21.22

Representative image. Triplet babies in "Thing" outfits.

Many people believe that someone’s personality can be determined by their birth order within a family. Older siblings are often seen as more responsible and the youngest is frequently characterized as the most laid-back. Although there isn’t much research to back up these claims, there is evidence that birth order can affect someone’s intelligence.

So, does birth order have any effect on multiples? In a unique case like triplets, there can be a small, self-fulfilling prophecy effect. Parents and siblings may project stereotypes onto one another, such as, “You were born first, now you’re first at everything,” or “You were born last, no wonder you’re lazy.”

Triplets on TikTok are going viral because they were never able to have any squabbles about their birth order because they never knew it until they turned 18. Janie Hilbert, 18, shared a video in February featuring her triplet brothers, Luke and Wright, that showed their reaction to learning their birth order for the first time.


The video is touching, but it didn’t reveal the actual order, just their reaction and it was still viewed over 20 million times.

x3 🤷😆

@janie.banie4

x3 🤷😆

After the post, TikTok was shouting for a follow-up video that revealed the results. A few days later, Janie posted a video that revealed their birth order, set to the theme song from “Full House.”

triplet birth order reveal!!!

@janie.banie4

triplet birth order reveal!!!

The post showed that Wright is the oldest, followed by middle child Luke and then Janie. Janie was not excited about being the youngest. “I did not want to be the youngest,” Janie told Today.com. “That’s the one thing I really hoped I hadn’t been waiting 18 years to be the youngest and then here we are.”

The triplets’ parents, Stewart Hilbert and Clay Hilbert, told Today.com why they decided to wait until their 18th birthday to learn the truth about their birth order. The decision was made because Clayton, their oldest child, was born three years before the triplets.

“He was also definitely precocious, a rule follower and very literal,” Stewart said, adding that he would probably tried to enforce an “olest gets the bottle first” mentality when the triplets arrived. “We just didn’t want to play his game, and we were like, alright, let’s just keep it a secret. It’ll be fun. They won’t have to subscribe to any of the stereotypes of oldest, middle, youngest, all that.”

It was tough keeping the birth order a secret for all those years, especially with the children constantly begging to find out the answer. “They definitely wanted to know, and that made it even more fun,” Stewart explained.

“We tried to figure it out for so long. We begged and begged. They wouldn’t crack,” Janie added.

The funny thing was that their father secretly revealed the truth in the family group chat which featured the children’s names in birth order. But the triplets never put it together. "I was so excited to try to tell them that it was in front of them the whole time," Clay said.

via WileeFam/TikTok (used with permission)

Cathy gets a "pupdate" from Embark.

A dog owner in New York City named Cathy had a touching reaction after learning that her rescue dog, Wilee, has a brother who looks just like him. Four years ago, she got Wilee's DNA tested through Embark because he’s a unique-looking rescue and wanted to know his specific mix.

“He is a mix of chow chow, Pomeranian, American Staffordshire terrier and many more,” Cathy told Upworthy. “He is a super mutt!”

A few months later, Embark began sending her profiles of dogs they found to be Wilee’s family members. Since then, Cathy has learned that he has two sisters and a brother, Nic. What’s incredible about the siblings is that the girls are solid-colored, but Nic is the spitting image of Wilee.


When Cathy learned about Wilee’s sisters, she hoped that she might find a brother who was similar to him. “I have a theory that all of the girls in his family are solid colors, and they don’t look like Wilee. So, I was really hoping a boy would match. I was like, maybe the boy will look like Wilee.”

What do i do with all my emotions now? What do i do with this info 😭 i need like 55 more pics of nic…

@wileefam

What do i do with all my emotions now? What do i do with this info 😭 i need like 55 more pics of nic… #newyorkcity #dogmama #dogsoftiktok #embark #mutt #rescuedog #heartwarming

The similarities between the 2 dogs are astonishing. "This is the cutest thing I’ve seen all day. His brother looks just like himmmm!" one commenter wrote on the video.

"This is Nick. Look at this young man. Is this not Wilee? Is this not my dog?” Cathy explained in the video. “I need like 55 more pics of Nic.” Cathy told Upworthy that she’s been in touch with Nic’s owner and he is “very energetic just like Wilee.”