I'm getting kind of tired of people insisting to say "half-siblings" instead of just "siblings"

[Fudgepuppy]

I have a very unorthodox family. My brother has a different father, and my two sisters, have a different mother. Still, I grew up with all of them in the same house. Everyone in my family just said "your sisters and brother", but then I got older and people started correcting me and saying "oh, so they're like your half-siblings?".

Even now, I'm watching Big Little Lies, and they insist on saying "she's her half-sister". I understand that it's there for expository reasons, but I just hate how negative it sounds.

My siblings are my siblings. There's nothing "half" about them.

End of rant.

 

[finalflame]

Dunno I refer to my sister as my sister but usually clarify she's my half-sister as additional context. 🤷🏻‍♂️

 

[Fat4all]

all of my older siblings have a different father, but i still call them all my sisters, and they haven't asked me to call them otherwise so far

 

[Klyka]

I refer to my siblings as my half-siblings whenever the large gap in age and our very different looks come up

 

[Finale Fireworker]

It's super weird that people correct you on your relationships to your own siblings... That seems so rude. Who would do that? That's your relationship to describe, not theirs.

 

[DiipuSurotu]

What about step-siblings

 

[Steeped in a Sea of Games]

I mean, techically they are your half-siblings and most people try to categorize things in ways they can understand. It doesn't mean you have to feel any differently about them. People can be extremely close to an uncle or a cousin and it doesn't mean anything. It's just a title.

 

[Evildeadhead]

Dunno I refer to my sister as my sister but usually clarify she's my half-sister as additional context. 🤷🏻‍♂️

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Why does it matter?

 

[teruterubozu]

Depends on the relationship I guess. Some folks do want that distinction if it's not exactly amicable.

 

[Ultimate Bear Cub]

Now that's half a step too far bro.

 

[Deleted member 4367]

What about step-siblings

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Bow chicka bow bow.

 

[melikefishnchips]

My father left when i was 3 and had 3 other kids so i have 2 half brothers and a half sister. We're not close so i'll be damned if i'm just gonna call them my siblings when there's no familiarity there. In the off chance they even get brought up, i refer to as my half brothers and half sister.

Fuck those people who suggests that the people you've grown up and have familiarity are some kind of second class siblings.

 

[Fanto]

Technically my sister is my half-sister since we have different dads, but we've never referred to each other that way. I do it sometimes in my head to distance myself from her because we have a terrible relationship, but I still always refer to her as my sister.

 

[Fat4all]

Now that's half a step too far bro.

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whalf are you doing, steph bro

 

[Pandora012]

Yeah, it annoys me to no end when people try to correct me with my family. Like you op, i say brother/sister. But there is always someone insisting that half should be used.

 

[Shadybiz]

What about step-siblings

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'What are you DOING, Step sib?!?!"

 

[shaneo632]

I don't acknowledge my step siblings as step siblings because I don't approve of the relationships that made it all came about. Nothing against them personally, I just don't see them as "family."

 

[Puroresu_kid]

Always found it strange when people refer to siblings with a different parent as "half Sister/brother"

 

[Tbm24]

I refer to my siblings as my half-siblings whenever the large gap in age and our very different looks come up

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Even so, just seems tedious. I do it anymore and refer to my oldest brother as just my brother despite just sharing our father. The irony is that my half brother and older brother look more alike(they look like my dad) and I look nothing like either of them(as I took after me mum brown skin and all while they're both white).

 

[GamerJM]

This is probably different, but several of my "cousins" are technically half-cousins since my grandma had their parent with a different man, and growing up I never saw them any differently (I was pretty close with a lot of my cousins as a kid). I didn't even know this until I was like 12.

 

[Ketch]

I call my in-laws brother/sister/mom/dad.

Sometimes I'll clarify if people are like "they don't look anything like you"

But most of the time it's unnecessary

 

[Zeroneo]

People do this to me too and I always thought it was odd. Bar 1 all my siblings are step-siblings but I never made the distinction. Was very confusing the first time someone corrected me

 

[Klyka]

Even so, just seems tedious. I do it anymore and refer to my oldest brother as just my brother despite just sharing our father. The irony is that my half brother and older brother look more alike(they look like my dad) and I look nothing like either of them(as I took after me mum brown skin and all while they're both white).

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I don't know, it doesn't really seem tedious.
Like,usually I'll go "oh that was my brother you met there" and the other party goes "what? he was your brother? he's so much older and you look nothing alike!" to which I respond "oh yeah, he is my half-brother, we got different fathers". At that point I go back to calling him my brother cause the situation has been explained.

 

[crimsonECHIDNA]

What about step-siblings

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[Rassilon]

I have a very unorthodox family. My brother has a different father, and my two sisters, have a different mother. Still, I grew up with all of them in the same house. Everyone in my family just said "your sisters and brother", but then I got older and people started correcting me and saying "oh, so they're like your half-siblings?".

Even now, I'm watching Big Little Lies, and they insist on saying "she's her half-sister". I understand that it's there for expository reasons, but I just hate how negative it sounds.

My siblings are my siblings. There's nothing "half" about them.

End of rant.

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I agree with this.

My siblings had a different father, but I always considered them brother and sister until some shithead teased me they were 'only' half siblings. Fuck off with that shit.

There are indeed shitheads out there who roll out the pedantry with familial unit classifications. What does it matter about technicalities?

 

[Ultimate Bear Cub]

Lol I consider my half-aunts my aunts yeah.

 

[harry the spy]

I guess it depends on how close you are? You grew up in the same household so it makes you call them siblings . Just like an adopted sibling would still be a sibling.

 

[Fubar]

I refer to two of my siblings as my siblings, brother, sister, whatever. Only when people ask why there is a 12 and 14 year age gap between me and them do I say that we share a mom but have different fathers.

 

[AlwaysSalty]

I have a bunch of "half-siblings", not raised with any of them. Also huuuuuuge age gap I'm old enough to be all their fathers. Still consider them full-siblings though.

 

[Rampage]

Rather be refereed to as a half-sibling, than a bastard child. It is like the distinction of step-children. It is just people trying to get genealogies straight. Older people especial like to plot out family trees. Atleast they are counting you a sibling- aka family, and not some sort of immoral person born out of sin.

 

[Dali]

Dunno I refer to my sister as my sister but usually clarify she's my half-sister as additional context. 🤷🏻‍♂️

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Same. Especially when I say I haven't seen them in years because they are Welsh.

 

[Osan912]

That's cuz it's what they are? Like i get if you shorten something like cousin once removed as to just a cousin or whatever but they don't share both sets of parents hence the half part. Doesn't mean you love them any less. I'm lucky though my parents stayed together my whole life and there weren't outside children so just regular brothers and sisters.

 

[cartographer]

I feel you. It gets annoying with adoption, too.

"So who are your real parents?" "Oh, so she's not your real sister?" The italics aren't there for show. People stress "real" when they talk about it.

I know it's just ignorance and not malicious when most people say "real" instead of "biological" or "birth" or what have you. But it doesn't stop it from being annoying after decades of hearing it. Every once in a while I'll get someone who is really insistent on making sure I know that they don't see my family as legitimately my family, but most people drop it once it's clarified (not that it's anybody's business in the first place).

 

[Vincent Alexander]

It's up to you to choose. If they try correcting you about your own relationships, fuck 'em.

I feel you. It gets annoying with adoption, too.

"So who are your real parents?" "Oh, so she's not your real sister?" The italics aren't there for show. People stress "real" when they talk about.

I know it's just ignorance and not malicious when most people say "real" instead of "biological" or "birth" or what have you. But it doesn't stop it from being annoying after decades of hearing it. Every once in a while I'll get someone who is really insistent on making sure I know that they don't see my family as legitimately my family, but most people drop it once it's clarified (not that it's anybody's business in the first place).

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Amen. I feel you. I deal with this too as a step-dad when I get asked about the real dad. Oh, the guy who left my now wife when his real son wasn't even 1 yet? Who I've helped raise for 9 years now? Yeah, I am his real dad. He is my son.

 

[Molecule]

Weird that people correct you on how you refer to your own relationships. I have 3 half brothers and I always mention that because I don't have a close, or any, relationship with them so to me it feels wrong to say they are my brothers. It feels more distant, and therefore more accurate, to call them my half brothers.

 

[Bob Beat]

I grew up with a lot of strife around family and who's who. It left a bad taste for me so I just call people family, siblings, mom's, etc.

 

[Vincent Grayson]

Unless someone is being shitty about it, reading negativity into the "half" part is on you, not anyone else.

 

[Pandora012]

That's cuz it's what they are? Like i get if you shorten something like cousin once removed as to just a cousin or whatever but they don't share both sets of parents hence the half part. Doesn't mean you love them any less. I'm lucky though my parents stayed together my whole life and there weren't outside children so just regular brothers and sisters.

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I think the issue is that others try to correct you. I call my brothers and sister, just that. But there are people that won't accept that and tell me no....they are your half siblings.

 

[Cosmo Kramer]

I have three half brothers and i don't consider them part of my family, you can call them what you want

 

[Burrman]

Dunno I refer to my sister as my sister but usually clarify she's my half-sister as additional context. 🤷🏻‍♂️

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Same

 

[Mona]

dunno, i dont even consider my half-siblings as siblings at all

 

[Christian]

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Thank you for this.

 

[acheron_xl]

I have two half-sisters, haven't seen one in 30 years, and never met the other. They're siblings on a technicality, so I label them as such.

You do you.

 

[Viewt]

My oldest sister has a different mother. I only think of her as my sister, but I'll occasionally clarify her as being a half-sister because there's a big age gap.

 

[EnlightenedMint]

I have 3 half brothers and they are all 10+ years older than me, so I usually throw in "half brothers" when describing my family.

And just about everytime I do say "half brother" people say "well that doesn't really matter they are still family" and I agree.

 

[Fudgepuppy]

Unless someone is being shitty about it, reading negativity into the "half" part is on you, not anyone else.

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I have a friend, I would happily call my best friend. We were once at his place, just playing some board games, drinking some beers, and having a good time. We started talking about families, and he talked about his two brothers and one sister. We then started talking about my siblings, and when I explained how I grew up, he said "so they're your half siblings, and not your siblings?".

It definitely felt like a very sour moment to hear him so proudly talk about his siblings, but then feel the need to correct me when I talked about my siblings and history.

It could be "on me" to take the offense on that one, but when you have someone making the distinction in that context, it feels belittling.

 

[IMCaprica]

If you want to give that context it's fine. If other people are correcting you fuck those people.

Also I have one sibling from my mom and stepdad and one sibling from my stepmom and my dad who adopted them when the other guy ran out on my stepmom. I bring all that context just to point out that I've literally never actually pointed that out to people because who fucking cares. Siblings are siblings. The end.

 

[Ultimate Bear Cub]

I feel you. It gets annoying with adoption, too.

"So who are your real parents?" "Oh, so she's not your real sister?" The italics aren't there for show. People stress "real" when they talk about it.

I know it's just ignorance and not malicious when most people say "real" instead of "biological" or "birth" or what have you. But it doesn't stop it from being annoying after decades of hearing it. Every once in a while I'll get someone who is really insistent on making sure I know that they don't see my family as legitimately my family, but most people drop it once it's clarified (not that it's anybody's business in the first place).

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I'm a fan of bioparents like "bio-mom" or "bio-dad" if clarification is needed. It makes it more mad scientisty. El psy congroo.

 

[MykhellMikado]

It's a distinction of lineage, the emotional perspectives attached to the terms are separate from the actual technical meanings.

For some people the technical meaning is accurate, for others the emotional meaning is accurate.

 

[Rendering...]

You have to half-love your half-siblings. It's the rules.