Are you guys close with your cousins?

37 comments

1. Only with one of them

2. This is going to depend on family and culture. Yes, for my family I grew up with my cousins and aunties

3. Depends on the family, but in many cases we’re very close to our cousins. But I know people who were raised like siblings with their cousins, and some who don’t even know theirs. 

4. We get along but aren’t super close. They’re a plane ride away so I don’t see them often.

5. I’m not. I grew up hours away from them and only saw them on occasional holidays. I think this varies widely though. Some people lived in the same town as their cousins and are very close.

6. We were never close geographically, but we all get along really well and have a good time when we do get together, which was once a year or so for a reunion for a while…

7. One of my cousins is the best friend I could ever ask for. I love her more than anyone. We were raised like sisters.

   The others, I love and enjoying seeing, but I do not consider myself very close to them. I am happy they are all well.

8. I only have two cousins and they’re both little kids, so I’ve basically only met them a couple of times.

9. I barely talk to my parents or siblings, much less my cousins.

10. My cousins live in a different country and I barely know them.

11. Nope. They live in a different area of the country, I’m 10+ years older than all of them (I’m 31), and I haven’t even seen any of them in years.

12. I’m not. I have no contact with them.

13. My first cousins, yes.

14. Some people call cousins “your first friends,” but I call them “strangers I recognize.”

15. It’s close, but we’re much more geographically spread out than Pakistan and unlikely to be raised together in the same way. Also unlikely to get more than a week together (if that) at once, just holidays. It does happen for families that stay in the same area but I assume much rarer than in Pakistan.

16. There were multiple kids in the town I grew up in who were in the same class as their cousins. I was always a bit jealous of those kids, because my cousins are in another state twelve hours away and another country, respectively, so I have almost no relationship with them. 

17. For me it’s really weird. I have a lot of them, but we never really talk. Our parents were all estranged from one another for serious chunks of our lives so we weren’t around one another to build relationships. I do have a couple where we fall into easy friendly conversation when we meet up.

    My grandparents were all pretty terrible parents and even people to varying degrees, and it destroyed a lot of relationships. And as outlandish as some of it is, I know a lot of people that have equally screwed up backgrounds. A lot of American families have stories of deep estrangements, resentment, and family drift. Then, there are many that have families like you describe. Some of my own cousins have that with their other parents’ families which is a really weird thing to see. Kind of like a mirror of what I might have had.

18. I have one cousin I enjoy hanging out with.

    Most of the other ones I just don’t have a lot in common with, and we mutually don’t talk a lot. I have a handful of them that I actively dislike and avoid dealing with if I can help it.

19. I am very close with first cousins on both sides. Probably about 50% of them are as close to me as a lifelong friends. The others…meh. 

20. On my dad’s side, yes. On my mom’s side, no.

21. My sister and I don’t have cousins that were our age. When we were young we spent a lot of time with some cousins that liked to babysit us. But when we got too old for that, we didn’t stay connected to them.

22. about 5 of them. I’ve got 20.

23. I have many and I’m close with a few of them.

24. Absolutely. I’m closer to my cousins than my siblings. We all went to high school together and even though we went to separate grade schools, I saw them daily afterwards. Cousins make the best friends!

25. I hate every single one of my cousins and wouldn’t care if I never saw a single one of them for the rest of my life.

26. Yeah. We grew up meeting up and playing together at my grandfathers house.

27. I think I might be able to recognize some of them but haven’t talked to most of them since I was a kid.

28. My parents were one of my cousin’s legal guardians until she graduated high school. I was only 5 when she moved out so I don’t have a ton of memories but we’ve always been close. She moved across the country so I don’t see her as much as I’d like but she comes home about once a year.

    The rest of my cousins I grew up about a five hour drive away from so I didn’t see them all the time. Even then we were still close, I have so many fond memories of spending time with my cousins. Most of them have stayed close to home so I still get to see them a few times a year.

29. Extremely. My family has a mass gathering every 3-5 years, there’s normally 75-100 people there. Tons of smaller meetups in between. This is mom’s side, dad’s side doesn’t need to do this because it’s smaller and all of them live in the same area. That side is also super close, it’s just that the gatherings are more like “let’s meet up on Saturday and grill something”. Mom’s side is much more spread out but the people who can have casual weekend gatherings do.

    This morning I saw two cousins at my house and then drove four hours to see a completely different set of cousins. This specific situation isn’t what I’d call common but it’s a good example of how close we are. We don’t miss opportunities to see each other if the opportunity exists. I love it, we love it, it’s always a great time. And there’s almost nowhere I could live in the US where this wouldn’t be possible.

30. It depends on family.

    My dad was an only child from nyc. My mom was fifteen years older than her next sibling and from Los Angeles.

    They met in the Midwest and threw down roots there. So pretty much no cousins around for my siblings and I.

31. I hunt with one of my cousins, so I see him once a year.

    Otherwise, I would have said yes at some point recently, but Facebook becoming useless hurt that. I would say that any of my cousins would bail me out of jail, and I’d do the same for them. I think that is some kind of close.

32. My immediate no. Mom’s side are all certifiably insane and super negative, why I barely talk to my sister too. Dad’s side basically disowned us and they were all younger and didn’t really talk to us.

    One cousin was close for a couple years then dipped. I’m closer with extended family and not even that close.

33. In the past, not so much but ever since one of my cousins passed away in December 2024, my other cousin and I have former a much closer relationship even though she’s 40 and I’m 23. This is something that really should’ve happened a long time ago.

34. Some of them, moreso than others. I don’t see any often nowadays but we still have that connection.

35. I only have two first cousins and were not close at all. Im very close with my dad’s cousins though, they’re closer in age to me.

36. I’m close with 3 on my mom’s side! I’m currently on vacation with 2 of them. 🙂

    I rarely ever see my cousins on my dad’s side.

37. Growing up I was extremely close with most of my cousins. My mom has a large family so my first cousins have like 20 year age spread. I have two cousins who are close to my age though and growing up we had sleepovers almost every weekend and vacationed together. Unfortunately, me and my cousin who I was closest with had a huge falling out when I was 17. We *just* started speaking again this summer and I’m 32. So growing up very close.. now not as close but working on it.