Relatives: "He is My Cousin"

I teach in a community that has families that have lived there for many generations. We are a small school so I could have between 12 and 20 kids in a grade level each September, depending on the year and who has moved or returned. Many of the families are related.

My students all seem to be related to someone else in middle school. It makes that middle school crush/ we're going out/we are in a relationship (on FB)  much smaller on the drama scale compared to what I have experienced teaching in a larger school. I just heard a student today say, "Ooooooo... I don't want to "go out" with him. He's my cousin." Many are second, third, or fourth cousins but it doesn't matter. A relative is a relative. When students begin the whole family tree-this is how we are related explanation, I get lost. 

It is difficult to have a prom at our school if students are going to bring dates. Acually many of them just go as a group or bring someone from "across the river".  I never think Valentine's Day is as exciting, and often the cousins tend to respond to each other as siblings when things get wound up in the hallway.

Again, as I stated in my post yesterday, this is all hard for me to understand because I was surrounded by aunties, cousins, uncles, and third cousins in the community I grew up in. I guess it is all relative.