How Do I Say This?: Bring Up Your Childhood Experiences With Your Sibling

January 8th, 2024

If your relationship with your sibling is strained, it may be because you have very little awareness of what it was like for either of you growing up.

In order to have these conversations, siblings have to be willing to listen, seek understanding, validate and possibly disagree. They also have to possess the ability to see a parent in a different way than their siblings. These are difficult tasks and they are possible.

Start by bringing it up:

“I want to talk to you about my experience growing up. Can we find time to talk?”
“I was talking about our childhood in therapy and I think I’m realizing some things.”
“Do you remember what things were like when (insert a year or place where you lived)? What was it like for you?”
“What was the hardest part of our childhood?”
“Is there anything from growing up that you still think about today?”