Kids without cousins

[5Slays]

My 3 kids - 9, 8, and 3 - have 2 cousins - 5 and 3. The two youngest are 6 weeks apart in age. When they are all together, they play really well. Right now they live about 900 miles away but they are moving here in October.

When I was growing up, we had two older cousins who we didn't hang out with very much because there was such an age difference. They only came to family functions at the holidays once they got older.

 

[mickeyboat]

I didn't grow up in close proximity to my cousins, and my kids won't either. It's o.k. (although it would be really nice if they had those relationships).

However, I don't think the OP's sons should use the cousin angle as an excuse not to attend family events. They can talk with their parents and aunts and uncles and grandparents. They can bring a book, talk or text, or play a video game. They can even (gasp!) play with their little female cousins for a bit.

Denae

 

[dolphinrescuegirl]

Both of my parents were only kids so not only do we not have cousins, we don't have aunts and uncles. Of course this meant no big family gatherings. If it were my kids, I would still make them go to family stuff. Oh well that they don't have boy cousins, they will survive.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

DS12 is an only child. DH is an only child, and my IL's passed away before DS was born.

DH has a couple of cousins. He was not close to them growing up, and we don't speak to them now.

I have 2 sisters who are MUCH younger than I am. My middle sister has 2 babies, but I don't speak to her and her kids are so much younger that DS isn't interested in getting together with them. My other sister is still in high school.

I don't think cousins make or break a child. Growing up I had one cousin my age, and she and I are very close now even though we never lived near each other. All of the other cousins on that side are WAY older, and all of the cousins on the other side are younger. We didn't live near any of them, so I don't know if we could have overcome the age gap.

 

[lemondog]

I never had the cousin experience. I did have cousins. I have 3 uncles with children.

Uncle #1 had 3 boys, but he more or less distanced himself from the family and in the 36 years of my life I have seen him ONE time, at my grandmother's funeral. Never met his kids.

Uncle #2 had a boy about a year older than me. But he and his wife got divorced around the time I was born, and she hightailed it outta there with the kid in tow. Never met him. He would be 37 now.

Uncle #3 had 1 boy, 14 years my junior. I did babysit him when I was in high school. Then he grew up, got HEAVILY into drugs and dropped out of high school. He has sort of cleaned up his act. Living in a small town in another state with a wife who is expecting.

I have a brother who is married, but they don't want kids. Ever. So no cousins here in town for my girls.

DH is 1 of 6, and most of his sibs have kids, so there are 9 first cousins on his side. But they all live in Maine and Massachussetts, and we are in Tennessee. So far, none of the cousins have met.

 

[LindaG4458]

My father was seventh of a family of eight, some of whom also had eight, and seven of the siblings lived in the same town. My cousins ranged from 12 years older to ten years younger and every step in between. At one point there were eight of us, from three families, in the same elementary school, three of us in the same grade. We couldn't help being involved with each other on a daily basis.

I am very close to the eight cousins from one family and somewhat close to the two from another. I never see the others.

The only thing about that many cousins was the total lack of privacy. There was always someone calling someone else to tattle about one of the other cousins. There were times that I wished that there weren't that many that close.

 

[Carys]

I never had any cousins. I can't say whether or not it would have been better to have them because you don't miss what you never had (unless you're a grass is greener type). Don't sweat it. Family gatherings don't end once kids are grown up, I'm sure when they're adults the age difference won't be an issue.