Age has nothing to do with Relation

Now, I am a very picky person. I am not at all picky with punctuation, and I know that I am comma happy, so please do not criticize my grammar or choice of words. But, I am picky about many things and this being one of them.

The whole idea of having names for different relationships (i.e. aunt, uncle, cousin, brother, best friend) is so that when you are speaking to someone who does not know who you are talking about, they understand the subject's relation to you.

The only time age has something to do with your relationship to someone else is when we are traveling up or down the parent/child ladder. For example, the youngest mother on record is a 5yr old (sick!) so, someone's mother HAS to be AT LEAST 5 years older than the child, and a grandmother 10 years older, and so on. Wow… I wonder what it would be like for my grand-mother to only be 10 years older than me. Maybe if we all started having children earlier we would know more of our family, and longer! Ha! Sorry, that's my ADD kicking in. And please don't take all of my comments literally. Besides, I think the consequences of having children that young would definately out number the benefits.

Now, back to what I was saying... when we are talking about cousins and aunts or uncles, age has nothing to do with your relationship! For example, a mother has a son when she is 20 and accidentally has another son when she is 40. The two brothers are now 20 years apart. The older brother has a child at the age of 21 and now the younger, one year old, brother is now an uncle.

I dated an uncle (not my own) that was the same age as his nephew, and it drove me crazy when he would call his nephew his cousin! I told the uncle, that I was dating, "He is NOTHING like your cousin. He is your brother's son. He is NOT your aunt's son". But just because the ages of all his cousin's was about the same as his nephew, he thought it would be alright to consider his nephew a cousin.

Maybe I have gotten pickier since being a mother. I want my children to be educated. But I have found myself picking on my husband, Bobby, a little bit about his choice of words when describing someone. Bobby's best friend's name is David, and I caught Bobby talking to our daughter, Caitlyn, about "Uncle David". Umm… no. He is not her uncle. Caitlyn already has 7 biological and adopted uncles. PLEASE DO NOT confuse the child more than she already will be. Besides, to hold a title such as "Best Friend" is an honorable thing. You pick and choose your friends, not your family. So, give credit where credit is due.

I could go on with more examples, but I don't think it's necessary. I hope you get the idea.