How sibling rivalry affects family relationships?

Sibling rivalry is one crucial thing that should be given immediate attention by parents. Even if we come from same father and mother, each person is still born unique in many ways. Genes that is contained in our body surely comes from our biological parents but it is not an assurance that all siblings within the family will have similar behavior and characteristics.

Rivalry between siblings can be caused by different factors such as differences in physical appearance, style, talents, individual capacity and many more. But the most root of sibling rivalry starts from uneven parent's attention or the so-called "favoritism" within the family. Parents are directly liable for the occurrence of sibling rivalry within their children. And it is also parents who can eliminate such crucial problem because if this rivalry between siblings can't be controlled, there is a big possibility that it will affect family relationships.
I came from a family of eight siblings. Normally, since we are eight, my mother can't attend to all our needs simultaneously. Mostly, younger ones were given much priority and unnoticeably cause jealousy among us children. When I was still young, I truly can't fully understand why my mom needs to be over protective of my youngest sister. It came to the point I started be jealous of the special attention given to her by my mom. It made me don't want to let her play with my toys. I became selfish and rebellious because I want my mom to treat us fairly. It is only now that I grew up and began to realize that there's nothing to be jealous about. We don't need to compete each other just to get my mom's attention because she loves us both.
Although I overcome that so-called sibling rivalry, it still resulted to the fact that I am closer to my dad than my mom and that I am more at ease with my brothers than with my younger sister.

But not all people can fully overcome such sibling rivalry. Others can bring this until they grew up just like what happened to my eldest sister. We never had any idea that she is suffering from sibling rivalry syndrome. She never stop from studying which we thought at first is a good thing for her personal development. We never knew that she has other purpose. But it is only when my dad is gone that she started acting differently towards us. She hated the idea that we are more successful in career than she does. She started blaming our mom for having favoritism. It even came to the point that we can no longer control the conflict that resulted to break-off of her family relation to us.

Sibling rivalry is a common scenario to a family particularly big one. Cain and Abel from the Bible started it and gave them a tragic end. If this is not remedied, it can create harmful impact thereby can minimize closeness between siblings, can create unhealthy competition, can cause a serious fight and ill-feelings, and can be passed on negatively to the next generation.