One morning a few years ago, 4-year-old Jacob called from the living room, “Help me! Somebody come help me!”

His voice was muffled, but pretty calm. I peeked in just as one of his four sisters ran to assist. He had leaned over the back of the couch to retrieve something, and all I could see were his bum and dangling legs. He wasn’t even trying to get back up, just hanging there waiting for one of his big sisters to come help, and one did. One almost always comes.

It’s weird how birth order and sibling relationships affect kids.

Here’s an interesting thought: a recent study shows that just having a sister helps improve your self-esteem. As a child I would have begged to differ that point, because my sister and I fought a lot. However, she’s grown on me over the years, and yeah, she’s definitely one of my cheerleaders.

I love to see adult siblings. When you have known someone for awhile and then discover that the person has eight siblings, or is an only child, or is the only girl in a family of boys; it’s intriguing to think how that sibling arrangement affected this person.

Is she close to her brothers? Is he so introspective because he didn’t have siblings? Was she the typical bossy older sister?

Jacob plays soccer, and his first year he was on a team with four other little boys and one little girl. The girl was arguably the best player on the team, competitive and focused. Turns out she is the youngest of four children and the only girl. She’s grown up learning to keep up with the boys.

Jacob enjoyed soccer, but his was a more social game. He frequently chatted to his teammates as they chased the ball around. He did all the talking:

“Wow, you’re good!”

“That’s my dad over there!”

“I have a dog.”

“Hey, look! There goes the ball!”

How different would he be if he had older brothers instead of sisters? We’ll never know. He’s just Jacob – nurture, nature and all.

I had a talk with my middle child’s new math teacher, a little head’s up that this daughter is very different from her sisters. His answer was that siblings are always different, and that while they don’t share personality traits or learning styles, he usually sees shared values from sibling to sibling.

I like that. It definitely describes my brother, sister and me. While very different, we share a strong work ethic, family values and a quirky sense of humor. While I am clearly our parents’ favorite — a fact that has never been disputed in print, and therefore must be true — I think it’s those positive values that connect us. We’re there for each other.

And isn’t that one of our great hopes for our kids? That they will be there for each other when they are grown?

Here’s a good quote by Erica E. Goode: “Sibling relationships — and 80 percent of Americans have at least one — outlast marriages, survive the death of parents, resurface after quarrels that would sink any friendship. They flourish in a thousand incarnations of closeness and distance, warmth, loyalty and distrust.”

I’ll be interested to see my children as adults (not in a hurry, though), but especially curious about Jacob’s future relationships with his sisters.

I have assurances from grown men who were the baby in a house full of sisters that he’ll always be doted on and looked out for.

I’m not sure that his future wife will appreciate that, but right now it sounds good to me.