<p>Son returns from college; junior HS daughter at home. Tell me it’s not just us that within 48 hours they were having the same old silly fights they had when living under one roof. Will it ever change?</p>
<p>Nope!..</p>
<p>My son and daughter fight non stop it seems. My son, the oldest, always picks on his sister; my daughter always reacts, so the fights continue. You would think by 22 she would learn not to react, and at 25 my son could leave his sister alone. Unfortunately, my son gets enjoyment out of his sister’s reactions, so he continues to pick.</p>
<p>They actual get along when they need to join forces against my husband and I! There are times they get along; it is just the fighting seems to stand out more.</p>
<p>Oh my, 22 and 25!
I think I shall have to find a way to exclude my emotions from caring any more if this is a forever-kind of issue.</p>
<p>When my H is with his 3 siblings, it is as if time has dissolved and they are all teens again. Fascinating to see the pecking order recreated 30+ years later.</p>
<p>They are interacting within their comfort zones. What looks like fighting to you is a complex relationship that is reestablishing now that your S is back for the summer. They may not be prone to hug and have heart to heart conversations but they are communicating and reconnecting. Better than tense silence or apathy.</p>
<p>My kids got worse when D1 went to college. D2 is used to her freedom now; I am a single parent with a full time job, so she has to take a fair amount of responsibility for herself. D1 spent last summer as a teacher and keeps trying to use her “classroom management” skills on D2. D2 is wwwaaayyyy to smart for that to work. D1 wants to be the boss/adult, and D2 (5 years younger) is NOT buying it.</p>
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I found that it began to taper off when my sister and I both had children of our own.</p>
<p>Hunt, I wish I was so lucky. My sister is no longer jealous of me but of my children. It’s sad.</p>
<p>My grandfather, then age 80, was talking about his beloved sister who was 2 years younger than he was. She had recently died. My grandfather’s brother in law thought himself to be a comedian and did tell stupid harmless jokes.</p>
<p>Suddenly my grandfather’s voice started to shake. My normally very controlled and placid grandfather yelled, “I told her not to marry that bum! He wasn’t good enought for her!”</p>
<p>They had been married over 60 years, and he still hadn’t gotten over it.</p>
<p>I may never change.</p>
<p>My two (son and daughter) did not get on at all as youngsters. In fact they seemed to loath each other (which made me really sad). It improved some as teenagers, and now (he is 22, she is 20) they are really close. Of course neither live under the same roof which probably makes a difference.</p>
<p>It does change.</p>
<p>My three fought constantly. They are now 24, 26 & 29. They are the best of friends. Although if you put the three of them together in the back seat of a car, old habits flare up.</p>
<p>My teen daughters fight whenever they are together, but get along fabulously when they are apart. Last night, they talked for two hours via IM while they were in the same house. If they had been in the same room, the conversation would have lasted two minutes and ended with one of them flouncing out in a temper.</p>
<p>3bm103, so true about the back seat of the car!</p>
<p>My sister and I got along much better after we both were in college- kind of realizing that we only had each other as the ones that would always get the joke, based on our shared upbringing. My mom’s siblings still squabble.</p>