Cousins

We are going to DH's family reunion in June for a weekend on the Gold Coast which had us discussing our cousins. Both DH and I grew up with heaps of cousins similar ages to us.

I feel a bit sad for our boys as they are unlikely to have any cousins close to their age. DH has one sister and I have 2 sisters (all close to our ages) but by their plans our boys will be nearing 10yrs of age by the time they get cousins (career girls planning kids in their 30's whereas DH and I were mid-20's when we had the boys)

Curious ... is anyone else in a similar boat??

It won't be too bad. My sister and I were the eldest of our cousins, only by a few years, though. BUT we didn't see them much, only Christmas really, and they lived around the corner! We had our own friends and we were friends with our parent's friend's kids.

I know cousins are important to a lot of people, and I hope Kaitlin and this bub are close to theirs, but if they're not, it's not a big drama.

-xxx-

Yep you are right Trace ... my two have each other which would be a closer bond then a cousin-bond.

STILL wish my sisters would hurry up about having kids though lol

Rhylie has been the only child in our family for a while, my cousin has a 7 mth old i think sheis, but we dotn see them at all (long story) there is my brother and brother and sister inlaw, but they wont be having kids anytime soon. so when our bub arrives it will jsut be them 2

LOL me too, I can't wait till my sister has kids.

OK I have to go before Amanda spots me here and kicks my bum!

Have a good day!

-xxx-

My older brother is 5years older and doesn't even have a serious girlfriend! So don't expect any kids from him. My other brother lives in NZ he has a girlfriend, but I don't expect any kids anytime soon. He is the same age as me.

On Dh's side he has to brothers and one is 5years older and keeps putting kids off, I don't think the wife wants any, she said 35 was her cut off and she is 36 next birthday.
The other brother has a DS who is 1 next month.

I actually go to a mothers group and it has DH's cousins in it. DH grew up with his cousins so our kids are growing up with their second cousins. They are all close in age. I like that part of the family, just not the MIL and FIL!!

It looks like it will be the same for my DS I am the only 1 in my family that has started a family, I have 2 sisters and 3 brothers. The boys are still at school and my sisters are currently not interested in settling down, but DS can enjoy the family while he has them to himself.

I grow up the same way as it was just my sister and I, we had dad's cousins who where close in age to me, but I wasn't really close with them. My little brother is lucky, he wad born the same yr my cousins, I was 14 by that stage, so he gets to grow up with them. My sister is close to them even with a 12yr age gap, they barely even know me.

I'm kinda in the same boat, Bella's already has two cousinsfairly close in age (4 & 5 year difference)and another cuz due inseptember (so about 16 months difference in the end) on her fathers side. My siblings aren't planning to have kids for at least another 10-15 years.
My eldest cousin was 25 years older than me & the closest to me was 7 years older.
It wasa shame not having cousins close in age but i have recieved so much good advice from them. And i more often listened to them than my parents.
I'mfinding it hard with a close age gap between Bella's cousins, even now too much "competition"

It looks like my kids will be the same DH has 2 brothers 1 is only 15 so hopefully he wont be having kids for a while and the other is 24 and isn't sure when they will have kids.

At least they will have eachother to play with as well as there friends

Yep Marita, our kids have a heap of second cousins their age also, but unfortunately none live close anymore so they don't see them much either sad.

Posted by: gem671

I'mfinding it hard with a close age gap between Bella's cousins, even now too much "competition"

That's a good point. I know a family of 3 siblings who had 9 kids within 7yrs to their respective partners ... there is heaps of competition within this family about which grandkids get babysat more by the grandparents etc etc.

I think that is why I went to the mothers group with DH's cousins so they could be raised with family. The oldest is now 6 so two years older than Zoe with my Twins being the youngest. The other cousins are actually in the same situation as us as one family has two kids as does the other - who are also second cousins to each other too and have no first cousins.

I don't have a large family and majority are in NZ with some in America too.

I hope that isn't too confusing!