The same parent can occupy different childhoods in each of their children.

Siblings often describe a parent so differently that it sounds like two different people, and in a sense it is. The parent was at a different age, under different pressures, with different resources and a different marriage. Each child got the version available at the time.

When a sibling’s account of your childhood does not match yours, resist deciding one of you is wrong. Ask what was going on in the household during their particular years. That conversation frequently explains a great deal, including things about your own experience you had never placed.