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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]It wouldn’t even occur to me to include a 4 year old on a mall outing with the tweens, not even a sibling let alone a cousin.  Are you the only one expected to take the 4year old when the older cousins get together, or are your other siblings doing this too?  unless the parents needed someone to watch him sure, but I wouldn’t automatically be including a kid that I needed to babysit, cousin or no cousin. [/quote]

Op here- I only have two kids, the tween/teen. The older cousins are matching tween/teen too. The older kids grew up practically like siblings/best friends. They get along very well.

As far as expected, now that he is aware I feel a certain expectation and obligation to not leave him behind when I take the older kids to do anything. The little cousin is wonderful, sweet and his behavior is not an issue at all. I love him.

In my mall example, I do need to stay there because I have a tween and it is far for me to get to Tysons corner. But instead of running my own errands or shopping I was basically babysitting/parenting a four-year-old; and every single one of you with little kids know exactly what that’s like. Even when they’re really well behaved it’s still on their time, not really yours. So that’s just one example of many other events. Even when they just come over to my house, he comes over too and instead of being able to move along with my day I’m doing 4 year old things. They come over a lot.A lot.

I already feel like a jerk for even thinking leaving him behind when the older kids have activities so you don’t need to convince me that I’m a bad person.  And to be clear, I have never excluded him these are just thoughts in my head. Maybe I just needed to verbalize and write it out as a form of therapy.

Somebody asked if I love being an aunt and the answer is yes, very much! That’s why the older kids have grown up with me and I would like to think they love me as much as I love them.

The issue is that instead of sending the kids off on bikes around the neighborhood, or going to 7-Eleven, or meeting up with her other friends I am now also in addition am once again parenting a four year old which is why I asked if it was a jerk thought of me and the answer is yes. I guess.[/quote]

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