I frequently see a cheesy logo that says something like "cousins are your first best friends" and I think ehh. Growing up, we only had one other pair of cousins on my mother's side and I did enjoy the older boy's company. He was like an exotic thing to have around. He acted like an adult I always remember, he carried a knife in his pocket, and he was not really afraid of being left alone. Now older, I realize he had parent's who were divorcing and maybe he had to be tougher as they lived in apartments where tons of kids ran around like feral cats. He wasn't living a protected life like we were. Anyways, I liked his style, always thought he was cool, we just did not hang around enough, but it was a treat when he would come spend the night. He had a sister, but growing up girls, you know, are pretty useless to boys. I was never close to her.
My dad's side of the family actually had a bunch of cousins my age, but we just never hung with them. The uncles all liked to get drunk and it wasn't uncommon for them to throw punches at each other, so my mom kept us away. for the most part. My favorite uncle on dad's side had four kids, we would see them like every other week or so. They were the ones who grew up being the track stars, so what do you think we played when we went over there? Tag. It sucked, they were all skinny and fast, we were built like Chubs and not particularly fond of being outside, but we had good moments. There were more cousins, my dad's older brother had like ten kids, but the wife was in an insane asylum or something, and I guess because of this, I couldn't even say where they lived. One of the sons was a classmate of mine, and we would say hi to each other, maybe visit on Christmas day, but we never got the chance to spend time together. The younger brother had a son who would have been about my age, but he lived in Eagle Pass, which was 45 minutes away, and that was too far back in the day for any kinds of normal visits. We might swing by if we went to the mall up there, but going out of town was special, we didn't do it just to visit.
I guess the thought of cousins comes up because Chubs is now face to face and soaking in cousin love 24/4-5 and he isn't a fan of that much closeness. He used to get excited when his cousins were coming for a visit, but he knew that was for a couple days and they would leave at some point. He has gotten older and he likes his "me" time. He is a pre-teen, and maybe it is just a part of becoming a teenager where he wants to be left alone. They came back Friday night and he was filling me in on how many ways his cousins overreact like babies do. He said they might be driving past a store and his older younger cousin will scream (they scream as their normal voice level) to grandma to stop and get him a toy. Grandma will say no, and all of a sudden the kid will sulk.
He did say his girl cousin was cool, she is like nine months older than him, and she is also in the pre-teen phase, so he likes that she hardly talks is what Wife gathered. He has not had much of a chance to interact with the other side of the family this summer. After we got back from Florida, my brother in law with the four kids took off on his vacation, then Wife had been distracted by working the last few days in Bastrop, and what not. The other cousin near his age had gone with his other grandma and he left for Colorado for a bit. The older brother is more Boy's age, so they don't really hang out.
So I have mixed feelings about that whole "cousins are your first best friends" business. We had a bunch of kids in our neighborhood, and my older younger brother and I could be outside from morning to night and have company from somebody around us, so we didn't have to wait on family to come visit. nowadays, we live in a neighborhood with hardly any kids, as a result, Chubs has grown up like a miniature adult, as my dental hygienist told me this week, he is so cute, walks in with me and just sits there quietly waiting.
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