What's it like having a 3+yr gap?

[Toms Mummy]

I read lots about what it's like having a 3+ yr gap with babies and toddler but I wondered if anyone could tell me on here what it's like with older kids?

Do the get on most of the time? In to the same things? Fight lots!? Thanks x

 

[karlilay]

There is a 3 year age gap with me and my sister, and i loved having that growing up.

 

[sabby52]

There is a 3 year gap between me and my sister and we do everything together, not only are we sisters we are best friends to, dont get me wrong growing up we had our ups and downs but we were always there for each other.

 

[smelly07]

I dont think age gaps contribute to how siblings will get on, its all about personality.............My daughters are 4 years apart.

I have 3 bothers .... 1 older brother whos 5 years older - we dont have a close relationship and i hated him growing up ..... but nothing to do with age just personality...........my younger brother who is 3 years younger we really use to wind each other up when we were younger but get on great now and my youngest brother who is 5 years younger - we have always been so close and have a very strong bond and always have.

i think when considering age gaps between children its not even worth doing it on the basis that you think they will get on better or have same interests. xx

PS i do wish i had a sister

 

[RachA]

I have a 3yr 9mth gap between me and my sister. My sister has two girls who have a gap of 3yrs 4mths. Both situations are the same - growing up together was hard. Part of it probably was due to personality but part of it wasn't.
In both situations the eldest sibling grew up and really didn't want their little sister around cramping their style lol.
I wouldn't say there was/is a lot of arguing but neither sets of sisters were close growing up.

With my sister now we are close - the gap has shrunk as it were and we get on really well.

 

[tmr1234]

My ds1 and ds2 have 5 yrs and they love each outher they do every thing together and play realy nice most of the tme. I have 3 yrs between ds2 and ds3 and up to now ds2 loves ds3 but he is still new.

 

[SerenityNow]

I put a lot of unnecessary thought into age gaps while we struggled to have our 3rd LO. I don't think that is matters as much as we worry it does. My mom is one of 6 kids and the ones who are closest to each other are not the ones closest in age. But that's not what you asked!

My girls are 6 weeks shy of being 4 years apart. They are really close and have played together all the time since DD2 was old enough to play. They are 8 and nearly 12 now. Things have a been a little different this summer as far as the two of them wanting to do stuff together but I think it has more to do with DD1 approaching adolescence and being moody as hell. If we are camping or at the beach they are great together, but here at home they've been more prickly with each other than usual. However, right now they are making cookies, singing at the top of their lungs and having a great time.

The hard part is that DD2 rarely gets to be the best at something. She gets that her sister has been doing everything longer than she has and has therefore had more practice, but it still bothers her sometimes. Also, DD1 is starting to have more freedom and she and her friends can go off on their own a bit which makes DD2 jealous. As a parent it can be a challenge to keep things fair even though it can't be straight up the same.

 

[Toms Mummy]

Thanks Serenity... You have made me feel better

 

[Amy_T]

My girls are almost exactly 5 years apart (10 days between their birthdays) and they love each other - they are only just 2 (on saturday) and almost 7 (next week!) but it's lovely. It gave me lots of time with my first and she started school just afte rmy youngest was born so I got lots of time with her too

There's 3 years between myself and my older brother and we never used to be close growing up but we are now.... as others have said, every situation is different.

 

[hypnorm]

My two are about 3.5 yrs appart, they do get on but they also know how to press each other buttons! Hate each other when together and miss each other when appart.

 

[Toms Mummy]

Thanks hypnorm... I'm hoping for this age gap, well it'll be just past this age gap if I get preggers within the next couple of weeks lol!!!