Sibling Ties In Later Life - Essay Example

Sibling Ties In Later Life Sibling relationship is unique in a sense that it goes beyond the realms of casual friendship one can encounter outside the home. Especially when gaps between age brackets are closer, siblings can have a special relationship in terms of companionship and a sense of rivalry with acceptance. Siblings, unlike other familial relationships such as parent-child is not confound within the bonds of obligation, rather it is more “mechanical” since they are “generational partners” (Bedford & Avioli, 2001), where reciprocity and closeness are distinct characteristics.

Sibling rivalry is normal (“Sibling ties,” n.d.). As a personal attestation, me and my siblings compete with our parents attention, during our younger years. In fact, we compete about almost anything, but end up helping each other. There are times in which our relationship was not going so well, but we still manage to work things out. I agree with what Bedford and Avioli (2001) contended about “cognitive closeness,” since me and my siblings are fond of sharing our different worlds to each other, and find it very interesting to find out that even though we have different plans in life, there are some things which we have in common, such as our interest to sports and reading books.

These common hobbies make us spend time with each other every week. We also have different plans when it comes to family life, and we have thought of different ways on how to rear a family, so this might be one of the reasons of ‘losing’ this closeness in later life, but definitely not losing each other’s contact. Care Giving Tasks among Siblings I believe that family structure and attitude towards family members are largely cultural in nature. In Western Culture, close sibling relationships are often associated with sharing common experiences during childhood (“Sibling ties,” n.d.).

However, this ‘common experience’ may not likely be true when it comes to later life. Independence, as a trend in typical American family life gives the siblings a chance to have unique experiences, and develop new interests other than what they share with their siblings. As opinions grow a bit different every day, there is a good chance that sibling relationships would grow apart. When it comes to care giving tasks of children to their parents, tasks are usually divided unequal, and siblings would have certain arguments about who should assume responsibility (Peterson, n.d.).

Usually, the heavier responsibility is expected to be taken care of the eldest daughter (Bould, 1997 as cited in Willyard, Miller, Shoemaker, & Addison, 2008), while the sons are ought to be in charge with financial support. In our family, it is unlikely to talk about who should take care to whom, since we perceive it as a burden to those who would be given the task. As what we have seen from our parents, they took care of their parents by sending them to a nursing home; that way, our grandparents are taken care of by medical professional, which is more advantageous than being at home with us.

Although we have not talked about care giving with our parents yet, I am assuming that we will do the same thing with our parents to make sure we can give the best care suitable to their needs as they become older. References Bedford, V.H., & Avioli, P.S. (2001). Variations on sibling intimacy in old age. Generations, 25 (2), 34-40. Peterson, M.B. (n.d.). Family caregiving and adult sibling relationships. Wisconsin Alliance for Family Caregiving. Retrieved from http://www.uwex.edu/ces/flp/caregiving/files/reading_siblingrelationships.

pdf "Sibling ties in middle and later life." (n.d.). Willyard, J., Miller, K. Shoemaker, M., & Addison, P. (2008). Making sense of sibling responsibility for family caregiving. Qualitative Health Research, 18 (2), 1673-1686.