My kids would consider many of these their cousins siblings. Some of their cousins spend so much time at our house that many people think that they are my children.

I grew up like that too. One of my cousins lived with us from the time she was 6 until she graduated from college. Her parents were alive, and she has siblings.

Growing up, my sisters and I spent a lot of time in the summers with four of our eight cousins. We're all still close and really enjoy getting together when we can, though we are now spread out from LA to London. (The last time we were all together was for the Women's March in January 2017.)

My kids have eight cousins and are close to four of them; all are between the ages of 17-28. They all grew up on the east coast and spent a lot of time together in the summers. For our family, one of the biggest disappointments of the pandemic is that we missed several HS, college and grad school commencements. We were finally all together in May for a commencement and it was great!

My mom had 11 brothers and sisters and I grew up with several cousins. I am not close to a single one now because we all moved away and got our own lives. Can imagine rearranging my life now to accommodate seeing them or to make sure my kids have a relationship with their young cousins. See them at holidays and functions and they get along just fine. I see no need to force an artificial relationship just because they're related

I have a big extended family. Siblings are older and first cousins are all 10 years + older. DC have a great relationship with 2nd cousins though. We make an effort to get together a few times a year.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have no relationship with my parents or my siblings so therefore my kids don’t see or know their cousins. (They know the grandparents but no longer have any contact.) I’m trying to understand how this would even work, eg, sibling hasn’t spoken to me in 6 years, blocked me on social media, etc, but our kids are going to hang out? How would that come about?

I would love to have parents & siblings - in theory - and therefore for my kids to have cousin relationships in the way I see other families have these things. But sadly, in reality, I can’t have those relationships with these particular people.

Yea, and I'm sure none of this is your fault. It's always somebody else's fault. DCUM is full of perfect women who inexplicably have awful families and even worse in laws. None of it is ever their fault, though.

See the misogynist above is back again. Must be miserable to have to be that nasty and insecure. Keep spreading your joy. 😁

I have a brother who I get along with fine but we have little in common. He is married with no children. I have tons of cousins and strong relationships with most of them. Some are very much like siblings for me. We talk regularly, vacation together, our kids are very close, and I count them as friends as well as family. It’s not strange to me at all.