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I think it's our closeness in age. My older sister and I are only 2 years apart. We were married a year apart and had our babies a year apart. We can relate to each other a lot. It was always that way growing up...we went through life stages at the same time.

I think it's a combination of personality and the fact that my parents placed a lot of emphasis on the importance of family, but I can't be entirely sure!

Personality is a big factor. My sister and I are so much alike! Even though I'm not super close to my younger brothers I love them very much and feel protective over them. I think that has to do with family dynamics and my mom encouraging us to spend time together as we got older and busier.

Closeness in age, being on our own at such a young age with parents who were working long hours, parents fostering family time every night for meals and every wknd through church and the park for outdoor activities. Our parents also sent us to Korea every other summer just us. We bonded a lot through our trips, both with each other and our extended family. I think both of our parents did a really good job of stressing the importance of family (both immediate and extended) and we grew up with a big heart for family, near and far.

Def personality and falling into our "roles" in the family. However, personalities def clashed during teen/puberty years and we had our share of fights too. It was a short phase. Our bond was so ingrained that the older we got, the stronger it got, our faith has also played a huge role in our relationship.

While I've taken the "big sister" role for the majority, our relationship has also evolved to where we've relied on each other for same/diff things at different points in time. It's a mutual love and respect for each other and I can easily say that my relationship with my brother is the one that comes closest to my relationship with DH/DS as far as priority, etc.

My brother and I are 4 years apart and very close. As the oldest, I was always responsible for him if my parents weren't around. If he got hurt or in trouble on my watch, I was responsible. So his well-being was always in my best interest. In turn, my brother was raised to give me respect as an authority figure. I was never just his sister - I was like a pseudo-mom. But I was obviously a lot more fun and understanding than my parents were about a lot of things.

The result is that he comes to me a lot for advice and input and I'm enormously concerned about his well-being, even as he approaches 30. Even now, he fully expects me to have an opinion about most things going on in his life, but now that we're both adults, I obviously try to respect his decisions, even if I don't agree with them.

personality I suppose, and the fact that there were only two of us so we were stuck with each other a lot of the time. we're 3 years apart and opposite sex, but got interested in some of what the other liked just because we were around each other a lot. and now we have so much shared history and jokes and such. throughout family drama we have stuck together and that helps too.

we fought like cats and dogs most of the time when we lived under the same roof but at the same time were really good friends. thankfully my brother going to college took the pressure off being in the same house and now we can just be good friends!

I'd like to add another factor: communication skills.

I have two sisters. One super close in age, the other 4 years younger. Growing up I was always closer to the older one (not just because of age--mainly it was personality).

Now that I live far away, the fact that the older one has poorer communication skills has greatly impacted our relationship (before it wasn't much of a factor). Now I'm closer to the younger one, because she communicates better and more often.

I still have more in common with the older sister, but we just don't talk that much.

I think our 'secret' is that we had to share a room (and a bed) for so long. We're almost 4 years apart, and have complete opposite personalities and interests, but you'd be lucky to find sisters closer than we are! We finally moved when I was in high school and got our own rooms, but we didn't want to be apart so it took several months before we were willing to sleep in our own rooms. We've maintained that bond.
I am almost certain that if we never bonded that way while we were younger, we never would have once we got older.

It's hard to say! I remember when I was younger finding out that not all siblings were as close as we were and didn't do things together etc. and I found that really weird because I assumed everyone's sibling was their best friend.

We are 3.5 years apart, so not that close in age...but it didn't matter. I think personality played a big part...I was very assertive and the dominant one and my younger Sister was passive and happy to go along with what I wanted to do.

As for anything my parents might have done? Well, we went on a lot of family trips/vacations each year and I would say as a whole we were a close family unit. My Mum told me there was no jealous/rivalry from me when my Sister was born because she went out of her way to make sure I felt included, wanted and helpful when the new baby arrived.

Just thinking about the siblings/families we hung out with as kids, I would say that they were all pretty close too...and those families tended to do more as a unit as well, so maybe that has a lot to do with it?

We were not allowed to have friends unless we were getting along with our siblings. Period. If we were fighting and supposed to go to a friend's house, my parents cancelled it. My mom and her sister did not get along, and she was determined that we would not be that way. There were many times that we didn't get along, or that we fought (how could there not be, with 5 girls?!), but there was the expectation that we got along. My dad used to tell us, friends will come and go, but your family is your family forever. I hated hearing that all the time, but now, I appreciate it.

Another thing that helped us was to have our own space. We all shared rooms, but at a certain point, our personalities just clashed so much in such a small space. For me, it was when I was 11; my youngest sisters shared until I went to college (so
15, 12, and 10?). Once they got their own rooms, things were easier. Getting older also helped, too.

I'm very close to my sister and she's 4.5 years younger than me. A lot is personality, we're very similar and have a lot in common. Also we weren't really fighting during the teenage years during the age difference. And neither of us were really difficult teenagers, we didn't really have a period of time like that. We never really fought growing up. Plus, our family went through some really difficult circumstances (loss of a parent) and I think that really bonded us together.