Some siblings are resentful of youngers, some like to care for them. Now, I only come from three, but my little brother is 8 years younger, and my sister is 4 years older (I'm the middle), so he basically had three mothers, and I never resented it. I've seen two-sibling families that the older justg chooses to take on caring for the younger. It also happens in families where the parent/s are neglectful and the older has to. I'd think the family's station in life financially and amount of space would have something to do with how a large family gets on. Also, if children are given stability and taught respect for the parents, there is less 'active parenting' after a while...they kinda start to 'school' like fish. I only have a mild amount of personal experience with this, not 18 (!), but with my steps, they are very close together, and I always said they grew up like a 'pile of puppies'. And there were always the friends around who'd been there for years. All my responsibility, but they didn't have that ingrained respect that made things flow smoothly. I mean, I know teenagers test limits, but they went to a ridiculous level -- it can become like a mob mentality. They were missing that stability and financial security when they were younger, and frankly the rules of respecting other people so it was really tough.

I learned to feed ten grown people a square meal with dessert on less than $10 if I had to, so there are tricks. But yeah, there has to be some decent amount of money around, just for groceries and electricity!

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