Sibling Rivalry Quotes

• I don't remember any sibling rivalry growing up, because by the time I was really conscious, Tom was going away to college. My relationship with him, which is a very close one, really developed in more recent years.

  David Hyde Pierce

  Relationship, Growing Up, Sibling

  87 Copy quote

• I had this odd sibling rivalry with America.

  Patti Davis

  Brother, Sibling, America

  84 Copy quote

• We must love one another, yes, yes, that's all true enough, but nothing says we have to like each other. It may be the very recognition of all men as our brothers that accounts for the sibling rivalry, and even enmity, we have toward so many of them.

  Peter De Vries

  Love, Brother, Sibling

  61 Copy quote

• We know one another's faults, virtues, catastrophes, mortifications, triumphs, rivalries, desires, and how long we can each hang by our hands to a bar. We have been banded together under pack codes and tribal laws.

  Rose Macaulay

  Sister, Brother, Sibling

  52 Copy quote

• Take two kids in competition for their parents' love and attention. Add to that the envy that one child feels for the accomplishments of the other; the resentment that each child feels for the privileges of the other; the personal frustrations that they don't dare let out on anyone else but a brother or sister, and it's not hard to understand why in families across the land, the sibling relationship contains enough emotional dynamite to set off rounds of daily explosions.

  Adele Faber

  Brother, Children, Sibling

  11 Copy quote

• It seems to me that we have to draw the line in sibling rivalry whenever rivalry goes out of bounds into destructive behavior of aphysical or verbal kind. The principle needs to be this: Whatever the reasons for your feelings you will have to find civilized solutions.

  Selma Fraiberg

  Sibling, Feelings, Principles

  Selma H. Fraiberg (2015). “The Magic Years: Understanding and Handling the Problems of Early Childhood”, p.281, Simon and Schuster

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• The mere existence of an additional child or children in the family could signify Less. Less time alone with parents. Less attention for hurts and disappointments. Less approval for accomplishments. . . . No wonder children struggle so fiercely to be first or best. No wonder they mobilize all their energy to have more or most. Or better still, all.

  Adele Faber

  Hurt, Children, Disappointment

  10 Copy quote

• When I was writing the script, I knew didn't want to make a sports movie. I was very clear that I wanted to make a sibling rivalry story. So when I was writing the script, the football was getting in the way of the drama. One day, I saw Michael Haneke's Funny Games, which is probably the most violent film I've ever seen - but the violence is off camera. When I finished watching the film, I said, 'Hey, that's what I have to do.' Haneke gave me this solution.

  Carlos Cuaron

  Sports, Football, Drama

  Source: editorial.rottentomatoes.com

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• Eventually we will learn that the loss of indivisible love is another of our necessary losses, that loving extends beyond the mother-child pair, that most of the love we receive in this world is love we will have to share--and that sharing begins at home, with our sibling rivals.

  Judith Viorst

  Mother, Children, Sibling

  Judith Viorst (2010). “Necessary Losses: The Loves Illusions Dependencies and Impossible Ex”, p.86, Simon and Schuster

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• Jill : What causes sibling rivalry?
  
  Tim : Having more than one kid!

  Tim Allen

  Sibling, Kids, Causes

  "Fictional character: Tim Taylor". TV Series "Home Improvement" ("Quibbling Siblings", 1999), www.imdb.com. 1991–1999.

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• My sister and I never engaged in sibling rivalry. Our parents weren't that crazy about either one of us.

  Erma Bombeck

  Sister, Sibling, Crazy

  4 Copy quote

• As parents it is well to be aware of the tendency to equate energetic activity with contest. Our children's worth does not dependon their ability to trounce one another. And surely we can find ways of frolicking and being healthy and active together in some joyful, free way that is not an adversary relationship.

  Polly Berrien Berends

  Children, Sibling, Parent

  Polly Berrien Berends (1987). “Whole child, whole parent”, HarperCollins Publishers

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• You actually do confront your dark side, your impulses, or your feelings of sibling rivalry in Cinderella or whatever. You admit that they exist and then you work through them and conquer them and come out living happily ever after having learned something. That's one reason why the fairy tales keep having traction and meaning.

  Catherine Hardwicke

  Sibling, Dark, Feelings

  4 Copy quote

• From their struggles to establish dominance over each other, siblings become tougher and more resilient. From their endless rough-housing with each other, they develop speed and agility. From their verbal sparring they learn the difference between being clever and being hurtful. From the normal irritations of living together, they learn how to assert themselves, defend themselves, compromise. And sometimes, from their envy of each other's special abilities they become inspired to work harder, persist and achieve.

  Adele Faber

  Clever, Sibling, Struggle

  7 Copy quote

• My mom says I'm her sugarplum.
  My mom says I'm her lamb.
  My mom says I'm completely perfect
  Just the way I am.
  My mom says I'm a super-special wonderful terrific little guy.
  My mom just had another baby.
  Why?

  Judith Viorst

  Mom, Baby, Sibling

  Judith Viorst (2010). “Necessary Losses: The Loves Illusions Dependencies and Impossible Ex”, p.94, Simon and Schuster

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• We have to divide mother love with our brothers and sisters. Our parents can help us cope with the loss of our dream of absolute love. But they cannot make us believe that we haven't lost it.

  Judith Viorst

  Mother, Dream, Brother

  Judith Viorst (2010). “Necessary Losses: The Loves Illusions Dependencies and Impossible Ex”, p.96, Simon and Schuster

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• Horizontal hostility may be expressed in sibling rivalry or in competitive dueling which wrecks not only office tranquility or suburban domesticity but also some radical political groups and, it must be sadly said, some women's liberation groups. ... [it is] misdirected anger that rightly should be focused on the external causes of oppression.

  Florynce Kennedy

  Sibling, Office, Political

  7 Copy quote