Have you ever called a non-sibling "brother" or "sister"?

No, I ain't black.

I've called my granddaughter sister. I have a couple friends I consider as sisters. No males have I called brother.

> No, I ain't black.

They aren't the only ones to do it, and I imagine they weren't the first either.

No.

A really close friend will sometimes get that. Sadly the last person I referred to this way isn't aroudn anymore.

No.

I dated someone briefly a looong time ago... At one point someone who met us assumed we were brother and sister. So, we joked about that some, even long after we stopped dating. Come to think of it, it probably makes sense since we weren't a great romantic match, but we used to pick on each other like siblings. So that person who assumed probably was onto something.

This could depend on culture. In the black community people call each other brother and sister, as in brother or sister in the struggle for civil rights. Many Christians refer to fellow members of their church as brother or sister as in borther or sister in Christ.

However, I am taking the intent of this survey to mean that the question is whether I feel so close to a friend that I consider him/her family. In that case...yes.

Yes, but I don't think I'm very good at it.

I theorize that it started with the Italians in organized crime...'paesano'

Ah! Nice thinking!

No, but I have called other people's dads "Daddy" or their grandmas "Grandma"

Uh...not exactly...

But what Crayons said.

Are you old enough to have lived through the 70s?!

There's the family you're born with, and the family you make - a close friend can be closer than an actual sibling.

I am Desmond from Lost, so yeah, all the time brother.

I do it often. It means I see them as more than an aquaintence, but not a best friend. Friends seem to have a higher need to be trusted than a sister or a brother. But a sister or a brother can screw you over a bit, and you will still 'love' them like a sister, brother but you don't have to trust them. You know them and have them in your life for a reason.
Am I over thinking this?

You seem more like a cousin.

OK...that is what I was meaning to say during my silly ramblings about.

> I do it often. It means I see them as more than an aquaintence, but
> not a best friend. Friends seem to have a higher need to be trusted
> than a sister or a brother. But a sister or a brother can screw you
> over a bit, and you will still 'love' them like a sister, brother
> but you don't have to trust them. You know them and have them in your
> life for a reason.
> Am I over thinking this?

No, I think you did good.

Okay, as long as it's not a creepy cousin.

No my sisters they are my siblings

I have called senior nurses "Sister" before, and also nuns who worked for the hospital chaplaincy (I worked in a very Catholic city).

Yes.

My friend Eric was like a brother.

Yeah. Actually, I have a brother and sister like that. I never saw anything wrong with it. My grandparents would "adopt" friends of our into the family. I had another set of parents, that way.