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[quote=Anonymous]I'm an only with an only (age 4).  We have no local family and family lives very far away (we see them 2-3 times per year).  On my side I just have my parents who are not really involved much.  My husband also has a small family, his mother and one brother.  He and his brother are not close, and we don't have much relationship with him and his wife.  They do have one child, who is my son's only cousin, and we see them once a year (they live in the midwest), but otherwise there really isn't much of a relationship at all.

I feel really bad that my son has such a tiny extended family.  I worry that he will grow up lonely (like I did as an only with a small extended family).  We tried to have a second child but due to secondary infertility we were not able to.

How do I overcompensate for the fact that my son has a lack of extended family relationships?  He doesn't see his grandparents often due to distance.  He just has the one cousin, and we don't have much of a relationship with them.  Holidays are very lonely (just the 3 of us as Grandparents aren't interested in traveling).

My son will not have Sunday dinners at Grandma's, or big, family holidays with lots of cousins, or the week at the beach house with aunts, uncles and cousins.

We do have lots of friends, but those friends are often busy with their own families and extended families and don't have much time to get together for playdates, holidays, etc.  I feel like friends are great but not a replacement for loving family ties.  I have invited friends to vacation with us and they are not interested.  I have invited friends over for holidays but they are busy traveling or with extended family visiting them.

I feel sad a lot about our lack of extended family ties.  Can anyone else relate?[/quote]

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