I'm an only child. DH is one of four. Although I had a happy life as an only child, I did hope to marry someone with siblings. I envisaged us all having kids at the same time so all the cousins would be close.
DH is the youngest. His siblings had children quite young so there is a 5 year age gap between DD and her closest cousin and 16 years between her and oldest cousin. Although DH gets on well with his siblings, I wouldn't say that, as a full family, we are particularly close (apart from his parents who for some childcare for us). He'll chat to his siblings on the phone but we rarely all meet up. As a consequence, our kids are not close and I feel as though I don't really have much of a relationship with his siblings.
I guess it would be different if they were my siblings. I feel I'd make more effort to see them. Is it a man thing?
This makes me feel a bit sad. It's not what I hoped for. I know that people have worse families so not sure what I want from this post to be honest.