Are you close with your cousins?

[chessica]

If so, to what extent? Just interested in what is the norm as I reflect on my relationships with my own.

Do you never see them? See them once or twice a year? See them all the time and always up to date with their lives too?

Same I am glad it no just me

No, sadly not.

I do like them, but we aren't close. Mainly due to geography I think. None of us lives near each other. My siblings are all over the place too! It's a bit crap but it is what it is.

very close to 1 like a sister. quite close to another. then don't really know the other 7

I have 7 first cousins on my mums side, we’re not close but do have a WhatsApp group where we keep in touch, usually only meet up when the cousins from abroad come over on holiday.

I have another 14 on dads side, could pass them in the street & wouldn’t recognise them. Quite sad really.

Ugh no. They are awful people. Totally polar opposite to me and they have sided with my bitch sister over something truly awful.
I've cut them all off and it's wonderful.

I have 30ish cousins. I am close to 2 but don’t see any of the others

Not really. I have 6 first cousins and I love them very much but there's huge age gaps. I have three older cousins (siblings, one deceased) who are about 10, 14 and 18 years older than me. Then I have three younger cousins (also siblings). I'm older than the first two by 13 years and the youngest by 18 years. I'm the only child in the middle, which was great when I was young because I had a lot of grandparent interaction! I also lived closer to my GPs than any of my cousins did.

My DC have two first cousins and never see them because we live too far away.

I have about 30 first cousins - I don’t see them very often, and it’s rare when we are all together, but when we are we get in brilliantly.

my kids are similar with their cousins on the maternal side; don’t see them often but love them all. They rarely see the cousins on the paternal side, partly due to age gaps and partly as all parties seem a bit ambivalent about keeping a connection going.

Had 20 when I was growing up - they were spread out all over the country and 5 lived abroad so rarely saw them. Didn't see any of them during adult life until one by one our respective parents started to die so we saw the cousins at funerals (well those able to attend anyway).
Now have contact with a few via Social media but don't see them in real life.

Yup. I've got many and we treat each other more like siblings than anything. Some we see and talk to more than others, but we're so intertwined, it's like we all came from the same parents (grandparents are the ones who brought us all together so feels more like siblings to us anyway). It's quite common in my culture to be close to cousins.

I have 4 first cousins and I'm really close to 1, text most days and see each other every 6 weeks or so as we live about and hour away on the train.

I have 35 first cousins. Some I was once very close with, some I barely know. But I'm not close to any of them now. Too much polluted and toxic water under the bridge.

I've got 9 cousins. 2 lived away their whole lives, I just see what they are up to on Facebook

Of the 7 local, 3 of them (from one family) none of us really talk to after a big falling out 15 years ago. The others I'm really close to - I see them at least monthly, and all our kids are close too.

I have 33 cousins. They range in age from two years older than me, to 25 years younger. Actually, I am closer to the younger ones than a couple of the older ones.

It is a mixed bag, but I am close to 18, I think. We speak on WhatsApp and engage on fb, which I have only for family. Several if us have children similar ages who are close, which is lovely. The younger ones, I am more like an aunt to maybe, but they come with their problems etc. I have flown most over to visit me without their parents and those trips are so lovely.

Some relationships are distant, largely because my parent and their parent were not close, so we just did not get the same experience of one another. That seems more important than distance for our connections. The Canadian and Australian cousins are among my close ones. Now I live away from every cousin, but I go home every other month and I get visits. So, if social media and messaging were not things, our relationships would be really hampered as we do depend on it a lot.

I know this is just real life but this thread makes me sad when I think about how much fun my kids have with their cousins all the time but they are young 😣 i have great cousins but we very rarely talk (every few years) I didn’t grow up with them though

I've got first cousins abroad who I have only met a couple of times (but am friends with on Facebook) and on the other side there are cousins who I don't see at all due to a family feud! Curiously I am closer to my second cousins.

Nope can't stand any of mine haha. Toffee nosed twats

I am not close to any. I am the youngest and used to feel very spoiled and fussed over by some of my older cousins but the dynamic changed as we grew older and having zero in common does not help. It can also depend on the relationship your parents have as siblings. I actually find a couple of my cousins to be highly irritating and we clearly have different, very subjective perspectives on certain dynamics, relationships and history within our family.

I have 3 cousins, 2 we were very close as kids, don't see them as often now maybe a few times a year but still get on really well when we do. The other lives abroad but still get on well when we see him

Nope- mums side are 20 years older than me, although msg one a few times a year.they also grew up in America
dads side- one died, one’s a man, nothing in common, loved hang out when younger but didn’t grow up near eachother, so long term friendship was never formed.

my children and my sisters children are growing up together, see eachother a couple of times a week- I trust they will always be close!

I’ve only got two first cousins and they’ve lived in the states since we were small, but one of them I’m very close to. We don’t really keep in touch much day to day but we try to see each other as often as we can and have a real bond. I also have quite a lot of second and third cousins that I’m fond of and see from time to time.

My kids have four first cousins (two on each side) who live 300 miles away (one set) and 500 miles away (the other set) but we make a real effort to see them regularly and they’re pretty close.

Family is important to me.

Some cousins are less than half my age. The ones that are my age don't move in the same circles as I do if you know what I mean. So no, not at all close.

Dads side are a nest of vipers, mums side I keep contact with.

Not really, one side I generally see at funerals and I bump into one or two of them occasionally
The other side live abroad and never see them but also have no interest to see them tbh

I've got 10, but scattered all over the UK/Netherlands/Germany. Oldest is 9 years older than me, youngest is 11 years younger. I get on ok with all of them, but really since my grandparents dying and becoming adults, we only see each other at weddings/funerals/the occasional family Christmas.

As kids we saw them a lot more, as I lived in the same town as my paternal grandparents, so the other cousins on that side would come and visit in the school holidays quite often, and we'd go and visit the ones on my mum's side. But as we've all left home, that's kind of faded away.