Gen X /Millennial siblings

[-]

mramseyISU@reddit

I'm the oldest sibling and grandchild and don't really have a great relationship with any of my siblings or 1st cousins. I generally speaking am closer to my dads younger cousins that are all 5ish years older than I am.

[-]

kheret@reddit

I only have one sibling and he’s a core Millennial.

That said, I’ve always felt closer to Gen Xers than to younger Millennials in terms of culture.

[-]

Miz_momo82@reddit

My siblings are straight Gen X and then there's me who grew up with all things Gen X until I was basically the only child at home by age 10 with no older influences

[-]

Key-Special-3404@reddit

Sib is seven years older: a full x while I'm the xenial. Aside from the age difference there were gender differences too: they were tremendously influential and helped me acquire hip, more mature tastes compared to my contemporaries. My parents were pretty neglectful so they bore too much responsibility for me and didn't hide their resentment. I have lived more of my life with them than with my parents.

That said, in adulthood we do not talk much: mostly just business around our aging parent... No drama or bad blood or anything but we have very different sets of values. They are into Disney, cruises, having the newest devices, etc. they do not understand why I'd love in a small house in a economically depressed, geographically isolated snowy/cold place or never upgrade on my home or cars or whatever.... So no bad blood but I'm a very gen x way: neither of us really cares to do the work of maintaining the relationship

[-]

SameMembership788@reddit

Thats sad 😕because you both have so much that no one else relates too with your memories . Family can be the hardest on you i think even if they overlook whatever it is when it comes to a friend, like we make more boundaries with family

[-]

descendingagainredux@reddit

My brother is 5 years older. We played together a lot as kids. We kind of got into different stuff but eventually some of the same stuff. For example, going to local hardcore punk shows when we were both teens.

He really loves Seinfeld and I have only truly watched a handful of episodes.

He thought high school was terrible and one big complaint he told me recently was that he hated that no one could dress expressively or be different in any way without ridicule. Because I grew up right as grunge was exploding I feel like I did not experience that to the degree that he did. We went to the same high school. Seems like he had the 80s experience of high school and I definitely did not. He gradutate high school in 1990 and I graduated in '95.

[-]

forgetfulsue@reddit

My sister is ~3.5 years older than me. We remember our childhoods differently, but really only had a disconnect when she was in highschool. She’s my best now.

[-]

xtlhogciao@reddit

We’re the same age and my bro is 3 years and 6 months younger than me. I realized one day that the line that separated xennial and millennial was Pokémon.

I was a senior when he was a freshman, and I literally didn’t know a single person in my class who was into it (some of us were into DBZ), whereas my bro and his friends were obsessed.

[-]

NoMercy767@reddit

Siblings are Gen X. Most my friends and co-workers are Millenials. I definitely feel more culturally similar to early millenials than late Gen X.

[-]

MsBlondeViking@reddit

I have a sister two years older, had a brother two and a half years younger, and one that is four and a half years younger. My sister and I are not close, she’s too judgy, and our differences are far too different to enjoy one another’s company. My brothers and I were always very close, until the one right after me was murdered. His murder(and other long stories) changed something in my baby brother, and he’s just so angry and not a joy to be around. My brother after me, definitely a xennial, was my closest sibling. We looked and acted a lot alike. We loved to joke we were twins. I miss him every day.

[-]

wheres_the_revolt@reddit

Step sister is xennial too (‘77), half brother is millennial (‘87). I’m not close with either one of them for different reasons, but I definitely have more in common with my step sister, and honestly my brother’s wife is a xennial (‘82 or ‘83) and I’m closer to her than either of my “siblings”.

[-]

jessek@reddit

I’m the eldest so I don’t have much choice in the matter

[-]

noonesaidityet@reddit

My sister is 10 years younger than me, but she would definitely fit in better with us than her age group. She listened to what I listened to, she watched what I watched. She had her own tastes, but a lot of what she was into was informed by me and my friends. When my friends came over she hung out with us. She was never the annoying little sibling.

[-]

Ineedavodka2019@reddit

My sister is 81 and I’m 79. I always felt out of place. Didn’t completely fit in with older gen x cousins but neither did I completely fit in with the elder millennials.

[-]

JeffTS@reddit

My sibling is almost 15 years older than me and is a boomer. We like a lot of the same shows and movies and both enjoy cooking. Our personalities are completely opposite though. I’m an introvert and diplomatic. My sibling isn’t. They’ll also eat things, like sushi and escargot, that I won’t go near.

[-]

Separate-Relative-83@reddit

I’m the oldest of 4, 1980. Bro 87, sis 92, bro 97. My sister and I are very close and similar, I’m female. She was always around me so we have very similar taste in most things. She was emo in high school, I was a grunge kid. My brothers are cool guys. We grew up in a small town so I think that was a big factor, but also we were in California.

[-]

TransportationOk657@reddit

I occupy this strange place where I have both purely Gen X and purely Millennial siblings (kind of). My sister ('69) is 10 years older and my niece and nephew (here's the "kind of" siblings part) are 9 and 10 years younger. My niece and nephew are more like younger siblings than niece and nephew to me. Anyway, I'm Xennial through and through, but I do feel closer to my niece and nephew than my sister.

[-]

cycling_in_the_rain@reddit

My oldest sibling is from ‘70 and my youngest from ‘88 (same parents). And a few in between. I’m close to all of them. Sometimes we have discussions about what was normal in our family and we see things a little different. I think in general people (and times) change, and for example my parents had a better income later, so even without the technical differences, our experiences weren’t the same.

Fashion: the first kids had flare pants during the week and ‘Sunday Clothes’ my mother sewed and knitted. The youngest had a lot more different items and my mother didn’t make as much. I think my youngest siblings had more fancy stuff en toys and more snacks and fancy food.

For the technical stuff: my oldest siblings had an orlitronic from the Smurfs, I played Tetris, my youngest siblings had a Mario gameboy. I played with that when visiting home as a student. We had our first computer when the eldest already was in college.

I guess there’s one thing we all experienced: playing a lot of boardgames together! We still do that.

[-]

8r4ndz3r0@reddit

Welp, I became a first time uncle at 12! Talk about a weird-ass upbringing. But that's what being the youngest sib ('81), half sib to be exact, to early Gen X sibs is like. Unfortunately, the age difference quirk never really worked in bringing any of us closer together. I wish it would have though!

[-]

GrammaticalObject@reddit

My brother (85) and I (81) are pretty similar. We pretty much consumed the same media. I think I was a lot more active on the early internet and with early tech that faded (FTP sharing, IRC, BBS and dial up) but not the stuff that stuck around a bit longer or came a little later (napster, AIM) since he got a healthy dose that too. I'm guessing I have a much more vivid recollection of NES games, but not SNES, Genesisi and later generation, since he was old enough to experience that full force. (He still has our N64, the one we bought together. I'm not bitter.)

One experience I vividly remember is one xmas morning when I was a teenager, and my brother opened a box and found a laser tag set. I was just a bit too old to run around the neighborhood playing laser tag, but not too old to be jealous of the prospect. I rememebr thinking, damn, I wish that existed when I was his age. Laser tag had probably been around for quite a bit by then, but it only became a consumer product some time in the late 90s (so I had gone to laser tag businesses but never done laser tag at home).

[-]

BohemiaDrinker@reddit

I'm the quintessential xennial (early 81) and my only brother is the quintessential zilenial (late 95).

Wet get along great.

[-]

Mattimvs@reddit

I think this sub puts WAY too much emphasis on generational traits. It's pretty much becoming like zodiac signs...

[-]

Throw-away17465@reddit (OP)

Do you also bust into restaurants and boldly declare that they’re all about serving food? That’s sort of the point.

Xennials Is a generational trait community. You’re welcome to leave and find one that fits other traits like gender, culture/country, etc.

[-]

Mattimvs@reddit

Oh calm your tits...you must be a Scorpio

[-]

No-Championship-8677@reddit

I’m an only child and only grandchild too. My ex husband was born two years after me (I am 82, he is 84) but he has two younger siblings (86 and 88) and we shared astonishingly little pop culture references. He is solidly millennial in ways I am not. It’s so bizarre!

[-]

BugEquivalents@reddit

My bf is 82 and I’m 80. He solidly identifies as millennial, but I think it’s because his younger siblings kept him in the loop. We were at bar trivia the other night and he was able to identify all the beanie babies in the picture round, I literally did not know a single one.

[-]

throwawayhbgtop81@reddit

My siblings are much closer to each other than to me despite only 4 years between us. Sometimes I've felt left out, like when they all had a group vacation coinciding with my sister's honeymoon to the Dominican Republic and I found out after the fact.

[-]

Imaginary-Mix-5726@reddit

Older cousins were solid X to Xennial and they influenced me a lot. Was cool when they made mix tapes for me and introduced me to movies and toys.

Younger sibling is PEAK Millennial and was into all the feminine Millenial things. I don't identify with that culture at all. Different shows, different books. But we're also DRASTICALLY different in media taste and style (girly girl vs alt) so that may also play a role.

[-]

CourtAlert8679@reddit

I’m a Xennial (78) and my younger sister is a definite Millennial (89)

If I had to name the exact moment our generations met, I would have to go with Clueless.

Like there are things that I’m aware of that would be classified as belonging to her generation, such as the Spice Girls, Tamagotchis and hibiscus prints on everything. There are things that she’s aware of that would be classified as “mine” such as The Goonies, grunge and doc martens with floral dresses.

But we both swear that Clueless belongs to us, and neither of us are wrong.

[-]

RipErRiley@reddit

For a moment I thought those were your ages in brackets. Was like “ok boomer”.

[-]

Deep-Interest9947@reddit

My older sister and I were 2 years/grades apart, both xennials. We weren’t super close or similar growing up and fought constantly but we were friends when it counted I guess. We are pretty close now. Our older brother (1974) neither of us talk to much.

[-]

SinStarsGalaxy@reddit

My brothers live 700+ and 1600+ miles from me. I (83) talk to my brothers (73 and 76) for birthdays, holidays, and unfortunately when someone in the family passes. I live the closest to our first cousins and all of our parents are getting up there in age.

[-]

CottaBird@reddit

My older siblings are born late ‘70s, and my younger siblings are mid ‘80s and 1990. I’m closer to my younger siblings than my older siblings, but I was still a pivot point where my parents changed parenting strategies, making me feel like like my younger siblings share something that brings them closer that I don’t have.

[-]

Purring4Krodos@reddit

My brother (77) and I (80) are totally night and day. He is solid Gen X. I am definitely more Xennial with splashes of millennial.

My ex and I are both '80. He is also very solidly Gen X which is so fucking weird to me. His discernment with the internet is next to 0. He was convinced that tollway passes were government tracking devices while he carried a smart phone and didn't want me to have the pass. He now scrutinizes everything online as being AI, gives some less than compelling proof points, and yet uses AI to trade stocks. Bless his heart.

[-]

SnowDay415@reddit

It is interesting how three years can make a difference. I think part of it was also who you were around when you were young. I'm 77 and my younger brother is 80. Our childhood neighborhood was mostly kids a few years older than me. I was "just" old enough to keep up with them on my bike (and ride a BMX track with them), my younger broker was not. Definitely made me more GenX than him in the long run with that exposure. From the general interests (music in particular) and overall attitude. In highschool I was a senior when he was a Freshman. He was still watching saved by the bell when I was finishing up high school......felt a lot different then.

[-]

Lcky22@reddit

My sis and I are 18 months apart, both xennials. Totally trauma bonded by our unique shared experiences. She’s older and protected me from the brunt of it

[-]

IndomitableAnyBeth@reddit

Hm. I was very attached to my older cousins when I was young. And though I was close to my mid-millennial sib, I was urgently parentified when they were 7 so it didn't feel like a relationship of equals. I hang better with older people than younger ones.

[-]

Few-Helicopter-3413@reddit

I’m the middle of three (79, 84, 89). My oldest sibling loved NKOTB, I loved Boys II Men, and my youngest sibling loved the Spice Girls. I didn’t connect with NKOTB or the Spice Girls. That range pretty much says it all for me.

[-]

MarsR0ve4@reddit

Me and my 2 siblings are all Xennials (‘79-‘84). I don’t know if it’s made us closer since I have nothing to compare it to. I think we all have the same love/ hate relationship with technology nowadays. It’s all cool stuff but it gets frustrating and we crave for when we were young before all the computers.

[-]

tc_cad@reddit

I am the oldest in my family and I am closest to my youngest sister. My middle sister really took herself out of the family.

[-]

Top-Wolverine-8684@reddit

I'm the oldest of 5. I have nothing in common with my younger siblings - completely different life experiences in every way. I got married, had kids, bought a house in my mid 20's, and have a good career. They are all still floundering, none of them own a house, and their kids are all very young. It's a 22 year age difference between my daughter and my brother's daughter. The age difference between my siblings and me is very small, only 7 years between my oldest and youngest, but it was just at that point where young adulthood was completely changing and expectations were very different. Growing up, all my friends were Gen X, both my first husband (high school sweetheart) and my current husband are GenX. I feel way more comfortable with GenX and people my parents' age than anyone even a couple of years younger than me.

[-]

EdwardDorito@reddit

I have 2 older brothers, one born in 1979 the other born in 1982. I am 1986. My younger brother born in 1989. Strangely we all were pretty consistently into the same stuff, me looking to my older brothers for cues and my younger one looking to me. That's why I consider myself almost purely Xennial though I was born in 86. Lol sounds very silly typed out though.

[-]

Intelligent-Camera90@reddit

My oldest sister was born in ‘76, and there was definitely a bigger generational gap when we were growing up - she definitely came of age in the 80’s, with big hair and different music. As we got older, the gap closed a lot more, but we lost her when she was 37. It’s surreal being older that your oldest sibling.

My next oldest sister was born in ‘79, and we were a lot closer in our experiences and pop culture tastes. Our eating disorders are different, but we both have them!

I’m closest to my niece, who is 14 years younger than me (my oldest sister’s kid) - she moved it with us not too long after she was born and we got even closer after her mom passed. Definitely a generational gap there!

My family was pretty close knit, growing up - my mom cooked dinner every night, and we sat down to eat as a family if we were home. My sister and I have since moved out of state, but we touch base at least once a day.

[-]

HopelesslyHuman@reddit

I'm nine years older than my brother (82 and 91) and have never identified with him super closely. Probably doesn't help that we grew up separately.

I don't have real older siblings but in my younger years I always identified more closely with the Gen X friends and sibling-like figures I had. I was into their pop culture and music way more.

That said, as an adult, most of my friends are my brother's age and I'm the old guy now. A lot of it probably has to do with social/political leanings, honestly. Most of my Gen X and older family aren't necessarily conservative, but they're privileged enough to be centrist and "stay out of all that."

[-]

SchucksAndMucks@reddit

Funny, thinking through it my older sibling (78) and me (81) share nada cultural wise. We reminisce mostly about our quirky family and upbringing. Maybe Nintendo if I reach. Mostly, we just laugh because our dad took over our Nintendo immediately and would bogart our one TV by pausing his game. Our fed up mom (now having THREE children) would scream “IM WATCHING THE NEWS!” and turn off his game as our dad would try to run in and be all, “BUT I’M ON LEVEL 7!!!”.

[-]

DameKitty@reddit

I'm an oldest sibling, in the oldest grandchild batch on both sides of the family.
I loved so much genx things growing up, but I was willing to look at the millennial things coming out. My brother is a little bit younger, so depending on where you draw the xennial line he's part of it too, but I feel like he leans a little more millennial where I am a little more gen x. We still talk often, and I share all the cool stuff he's doing with poetry slams in Texas. I'm really proud of him, and I try to remember to tell him often. Oh yeah, I love him to bits, he's my little brother. He puts so much good out into the world, I want him to have a little more good stuff than he's got. (Like a partner who loves him to the end of the earth, and kids to help raise into cool adults)

[-]

mareimbrium53@reddit

I'm the oldest of five. I don't remember when the xennial cut off is, but at least one of my younger siblings is one with me, then the others are "geriatric millenials" (I find that name so amusing) down to the youngest who is like, core millennial ('89). We played a lot together as kids and I do think that's why I identify more as a xennial than as Gen X, it is because of them that I was exposed to more millennial things than X things. My SIL is actually a year younger than me but was the youngest of like seven kids and so we always thought it was funny she was way more Gen X than I was. For example her sisters showed her all the brat pack movies and I'd never seen them. Also my youngest sibling was always kind of cool and surprising her friends because she knew about all this 90's stuff she would have normally been too young to know about because she had all of us.

[-]

Traditional_Entry183@reddit

Im both the oldest sibling and oldest cousin. I think that's part of the reason I've never felt any connection to Gen X. Core Xers were always just strangers to me.

[-]

C001H4ndPuk3@reddit

Me and my three siblings all fit within the stated range for this sub, so we're a pretty core Xennial family. That said, I'm the oldest of four and also spent a large chunk of my career working with and supervising folks just a little younger than me. So I relate better to elder Millennials than core Gen X at this point, even though I am definitely on the Gen X side of the divide by birth year.

[-]

emwaic7@reddit

I'm the youngest of seven and I don't feel close with the rest of them, at all.

[-]

Rare-Treat-2727@reddit

I’m the younger sibling and youngest cousin on both sides. I’ve always identified slightly more Gen X vs millennial, having grown up listening to their music and watching their movies.

Now that we’re all adults it’s interesting when I hear, for example, that my cousins (who I think of as peers) didn’t have email in college.

[-]