Hello...Only Child Here!

Hello!!!!  Only child here... no, I wasn't "spoiled" as a child because of it, contrary to all the suggestions I have received as such.  I was loved by my parents as any child should be, didn't have everything I asked for purchased and YES, I paid my way through University.  While I grew up happy and healthy I really, really wanted a sibling to love.

Over the years, when the topic of being an only child entered the conversation, I often joked that, "my parents stopped at perfection".  Truthfully, while in the womb I was warm & cozy, well fed and really didn't want to come out.  I hung on for dear life and decided to come out showing the world what I thought of it... bumb first.  Along the way my mom's doctor never made the smart decision to complete a c-section, opting to try and turn me thus scaring my mom so that she could never carry another baby to term.

Fast forward *cough* years and here I am with 2 siblings and 1 step daughter and I am having difficulty understanding their trivial fights and taunting of each other.  Do they not know how lucky they are to  have each other? Is their mission to drive me insane?  Why can't they just love each other???

Ok, I know they love each other; am reminded each time one gets injured the other worries, with each hospital visit the other one's concern shines through and when they are working towards the same end... I can see their love for each other.  They make each other strong, are each others support system, whether they would like to admit it or not...

AND THEN THEY FIGHT... over seemingly silly things.... and HELLO I'M AN ONLY CHILD.... I don't get it!  How can kids who love each other fight over little things?

I'm told it is normal, and try to find comfort in the stories given to me by my mom of the fights she and her brother had; how she wrapped up a piece of cardboard disguised as a piece of gum and gave it to him... the false tears she was proudly able to create on demand and how he would clench his fist and plead to his mom, "just once mom please".  And my husband reminds me of all the tormenting he put his sister through when they were young...all normal apparently. 

So, here is where I am at today; I am having a great deal of difficulty embracing the "it's normal" attitude.  I've never experienced sibling rivalry... I want them to realize how lucky they are and even admit it to me and each other every once in a while.  Is that too much for me to ask? I am an only child and I just don't get it!