Sibling squabbles

MANILA, Philippines - There’s this special bond that forms between siblings, sure. But why is it that the people who are supposed to know you best tend to keep pushing your buttons over and over again? “Don’t touch my stuff,” you say. No one really listens.

It’s an endless cycle of repetitive arguments over the shallowest of things, closely followed by an endless stream of forgiveness given by the end of the day. It’s routine. After all, no matter how frustrating it is to get into such petty and mind-numbing fights, he/she’s still your sibling, and there’s always going to be love brewing underneath that boiling pot of annoyance. Aww…

So, here are 10 people who’ve shared some of their most intense sibling rivalries over the shallowest of things. Not to worry; They’ve all patched things up by now. We hope.

Gel Lamug, 19

My youngest sister and I were baking a cake for my middle sister’s birthday. When it was time to design the cake, we kept on fighting on how to get the design right. We were trying to make a T.A.R.D.I.S. (from the show Doctor Who) with M&Ms, but we were having a hard time designing it. So we kept on fighting until she got really pissed and just made me do everything. Funny because we were trying to do a good thing for my other sister but we still fought.

Carlo Flavier, 22

There was a really stressful time during thesis that the only thing that made it better was Chicken Joy for dinner. Before changing into pambahay clothes, I separated the skin from the meat because I like to eat the skin last. When I came back, my sister had eaten my chicken skin. She said sorry in a really playful way, and it just annoyed me more. I finished my chicken angrily, then went outside the house to smoke the anger away. She then wooed me with some beer a few days later.

Katrina Sison, 22

One morning, I asked my brother if he could drive me to my friend’s house since he had a car and I didn’t. My brother remained unresponsive no matter what I said. When I told my mom I’d just walk to my friend’s house (a 15-minute walk), my brother got a sermon for being selfish. He ended up driving the car really really fast to my friend’s house. He didn’t even bother turning on the air conditioning or anything.

Krio Bustamante, 16

Before, I would always fight with my kuya. There was this one time when he didn’t pay me back P20 and I was really annoyed at him the whole dinnertime. We used to fight so much that I started calling him my mortal enemy at the age of five. After we would fight, I would lock myself in the room, get a baby picture of us, and talk to it saying, “I never want you to be my kuya ever again.”

Audrey Orallo, 21

My older sister tends to steal my clothes and keep them inside her locked room where I won’t be able to get them back. We had this particularly bad fight when I called her out on it (she was wearing something even I hadn’t worn yet!) and things just escalated from there. There were death threats posted on each other’s doors, subtle girl-world lines thrown at each other on Facebook statuses, silent treatments during meals together — the works. It was so childish, yet so unbelievably frustrating. I get annoyed just thinking about it now.

Brittne Lopez, 19

When my brother and I were younger, we would always fight whenever we played Pokemon on our game console. We would not stop bickering over who got to have the legendary bird Pokemon on his/her side (There were only three). One time, I reached the point of pulling my brother’s hair because he wouldn’t budge. Although, my brother and I still have that love-hate relationship, we’ve grown to become really close.

Jam Dy, 18

One night, when I needed to print something for school, our printer suddenly died on me. I knew very little about computers so I had my older brother fix it. He said he was busy and just gave me instructions on how to do it myself which seemed like a different language to me. I got so frustrated with his lack of helpfulness that I spent the night downloading which I knew would piss him off because it would cause our Internet to slow down. I also gave him the silent treatment because I was mad at him for causing me to submit my paper late.

Angela Nieto, 19

There was this time my brother and I got into a really shallow fight when we were younger. I wanted to borrow his die-cast airplane, and he didn’t want me to touch it at all. I got angry with him so I forcibly took the plane from his hands and threw it at his forehead. I threw it so hard that the plane hit him way too hard, which caused his forehead to bleed.

Karina Soliman, 21

My siblings are nine, 10, and 11 years older than me so I was always at a disadvantage during arguments since I had the bunso card. There was a time when my older sister asked me to do household chores. I think it was a combination of me being busy with homework, her saying it in a very mataray tone, and me being fed up with having to do everything they tell me just because I was the youngest, so I just snapped and threw one of my books at her. We didn’t talk for months and we only started talking to each other because of Christmas.

Wayne Coherco, 19

I have three other siblings, and one of our repeated fights usually concern the seating arrangement in the car. None of us want to sit at the very back seat alone. It would sometimes escalate to the point where our parents really had to intervene. We try to avoid this problem by either planning ahead like who sits at the very back on the way to where we’re going and back. Sometimes, we just end up racing towards the car. Last one sits at the back.