Michelle Flynn

Yeah, definitely not.

Actually, I said to my six-year-old son this morning, you know, what's the good thing about having a brother and a sister?

And he said, well, the good thing is about we have loads of fun together.

The worst thing is they're just so annoying.

It's like we know this kind of even from when we're little.

Sibling relationships are tricky.

And I think what's really interesting is that they don't get much attention, sibling relationships, kind of even in like in psychology or in psychotherapy.

It's not something that gets a lot of attention.

But actually, like these relationships are uniquely powerful and they're the blueprint, I think, Clare, for how we experience ourself and how we experience other relationships later in life.

Yeah, absolutely.

I think, and there definitely is something about the order that you're born.

So like, you know, firstborn are generally the ones who take on more responsibility.

They're the kind of people that I might see in my practice with perfectionist tendencies.

I'm talking about myself here.

But, you know, so there is those kinds of roles.

But then there's also the, you know, families organise themselves differently.

And to sort of survive emotionally.

So that might be that somebody takes on the role, for example, of being the caretaker.

Somebody else might be the clown.

Someone else is the rebel.