Are you my cousin?
I sort of feel bad that I’m not close to my cousins. Although, most of them are like, thirty something (my father is the youngest in a big family). Today I went out to lunch in town because my cousin and her children travelled down. So I’m sitting and eating with my mother, cousin, her three children and two other kids that have been brought along. One of the “other kids” was my younger cousin. I seriously did not know that until my mum came up to me tonight and said “He ate all the watermelon!”
“Who ate all the watermelon, mum?”
“Well it wasn’t really all. It was more like, half. Your cousin did.”
“What, Lucy?” (Lucy my cousin who is my mother’s age. That weirds me out a bit.)
“No, your cousin!”
“That kid? Is he my cousin? REALLY? REALLY?!?!”
And my mum just sort of looks at me funnily and says “Didn’t you know he was your cousin?”
Obviously not. What’s even stupider is that at random times my father would come out of the kitchen and pinch my apparent cousin on the cheeks. My dad, who is too busy working to pay attention to his extended family knew who he was!
But you know, I haven’t seen this kid for years! But then again… Neither has my dad. (Ehhhh, this was probably the most boring post ever, but I can’t believe I didn’t know he was my cousin! He didn’t even look familiar! Michael says he didn’t know who he was either!)
# Susie, 1 year, 10 months ago.
Lol. That happens to me too. Our family’s way too big! A lot of my family I’ve never even seen before (they’re all in the Philippines) and sometimes I recognize a face (at one of our big reunions), but can’t think of a name! I feel really stupid when that happens… o_O
# Bryce, 1 year, 10 months ago.
I know your pain all to well. My mother is the youngest of 7. She has a sister who is old enough to be her mother. My cousin I always think is my aunt, because of her age. Most of my cousins are old enough to be my aunts/uncles on my mothers side. I haven’t met much of my father’s side as they are a spread apart family.
# Amanda, 1 year, 10 months ago.
And it’s times like this that you should be glad you’re Asian. Instead of having to remember everyone’s Asian name, you can get away with calling them “Kei Ge” (older male cousin), “Kei Jie” (older female cousin), etc.
# Kat, 1 year, 10 months ago.
Lol! When I came to the Philippines I suddenly had a whole barangay (village) of family I didn’t know. Even those people who are 4 generations away are now considered my family. My great grandmother on my mum’s side has 158 descendants and I don’t know any of their names though and only see them during occasions where they think they can get free food and money :P
# Julianne, 1 year, 10 months ago.
I don’t have any first cousins, and that makes me feel kind of inadequate next to you and your long lost cousin. :D
On an unrelated and belated note, hurrah for your new domain!
# marilyn, 1 year, 10 months ago.
ahh it’s okay. i have cousins i haven’t seen in years and the last time i saw them they were like 5. now they’re probably in their teens. and one i’ve never even met before. plus, two of them who are around my age go to the same school and i, but i’ve seen one of them once, haha.
and yeah age differences happen too. like my cousin just had a kid, but then my aunt had one like the year before.
# Amber, 1 year, 10 months ago.
My cousins are all under the age of six so I really don’t get that problem! I simply say, “Hello little person”, give them a hug, and then watch them run off.
# Retti, 1 year, 10 months ago.
Same here!
I come from a big family, and my cousins and relatives and things are scattered all over the world… so yup. The fact that Mum and Dad have too many friends (I mean, how do they still keep in contact with so many of them all these years?) makes it even worse.
Although, I do recognise most of my cousins on my Mum’s side, I hardly know my Dad’s. It’s really, really weird.
# Boris, 1 year, 10 months ago.
lol! I thought it would be nice to have three people start their comment with lol. lol. You know, that’s pretty much the reason I went to Hong Kong last week or so. Well, three weeks ago, last week returned anyway. It was my grandfather’s 90th birthday, and his children put together a mass congregation of all his descendants at a restaurant. One room, nine tables, two people at the start of the bloodline, four generations, and a hundred and seven people. Plus a fish-load of food and fish. There actually weren’t meant to be so many people, but one of my aunts got her husband (who obviously isn’t on the blood side) to bring all of his family all the way over to Hong Kong. Well, some of them were, in Hong Kong, living there, but that particular aunt is known throught the family (including extended) for doing funny things like that.
You should get to know your cousins. At least their name, and at least a number of decent conversations. Last year I went to HK, my cousin from Canadia (who is Chinese and has a child) met me for the first time. We went shopping and he asked me what I liked so we could go get it. They were all like “These belts are nice! Do you like these belts?” “What music do you like? We’ll go to the CD store.” And I kind of made them scratch their head because I said “Um…a nail clipper. My nails are really long and I didn’t bring one overseas.”
Yeah Amanda, I guess so. But people are usually smart enough to figure out you don’t actually know their name. Imagine being at a family reunion style thing and just saying “Cousin! Cousin!” Which one? And what’s the difference between “biw gor” (phoenetics) and “kei ge”, or “bie jeh” and “kei jie”? I never know all these Chinese relative terms. Or ist Kei Ge Mandarin? Blah.
Relatives are usually nice. Very nice. Get to know them. I guess we’ll like it when we’re older too Chrasy. Buying stuff for our young nephews and neices and what not. And you’ll probably be having kids of you own! :)
# Chans, 1 year, 10 months ago.
I’m not close to my cousins either. They are all older than me, and we don’t see each other that often. I do ‘know’ all of them (at least I know their names lol) including my second cousins but I can’t say I miss them a whole lot.
# Josh, 1 year, 10 months ago.
Oh, I know how it is. I have tons of cousins. And tons of other relatives for that matter. It’s apparently a very big family, but I really don’t know the majority of them. When we were at a family reunion/my great grandmother’s birthday, I only knew a few people.
# Jennii, 1 year, 10 months ago.
Reminds me of Dory from Finding Nemo, “Are… are you my conscience?”
# Kat, 1 year, 10 months ago.
Off topic (delete if you like): Whoah, default theme. What happened? You must blog about it!
# Tracey, 1 year, 10 months ago.
A wordpress upgrade! That’s what happened!