Family relationships can be hard anyway, but why does family terminology have to be hard to understand, too?
Well, it doesn’t have to anymore.
Meet Kevin Silberman
He’s a Social Studies teacher at Burnsville High School, Minnesota, who decided to break these family relations down for us in his TikTok videos.
Silberman has an account where he uploads fun videos and he sometimes features his students in them.
In one of his most recent funny videos, he explained what he likes about being a teacher.
As he said, it’s “June, July, and August”, giving his followers a good laugh.
But, besides videos he does for fun, he also uploads useful ones, like this video.
Explaining what a cousin “once removed” is.
And, if you are one of those who have always thought that this “removed” has anything to do with divorce, then join the club!
It seems that most people think that it has something to do with marriage and divorce, but, as Silberman explains, it really is much simpler than that.
Stick figures to the rescue.
In the video, Silberman stands right in front of a blackboard where he has drawn stick figures to make the whole thing even easier for viewers to understand.
“My uncle’s son would be my first cousin,” he says. “My first cousin’s son would be my first cousin once removed. Removed means down by one generation.”
Wow, this last sentence makes all the difference.
It makes it so logical and clear.
Indeed, if removed means “down by one generation”, then it’s only normal that if a first cousin once removed has a child, then that’s a first cousin twice removed.
Well, now it makes perfect sense.
If you were today years old when you found out what this removed actually means, then don’t worry.
There are so many people who have always ignored what the term really means that you’d be surprised.
Just look at the comments on this video.
“I’m gonna confess I thought once removed means they were married to your fam then Got divorced,” someone wrote.
Someone else commented:
“I’m almost 39 years old and this the first time I’ve heard someone explain the ‘once removed’ thing.”
However, once explained, more questions came.
“When can we marry them? Asking for a friend,” a TikTok user asked.
Well, Silberman doesn’t disappoint
He has an answer for that, too, in another video.
In that video, he explains that states allow marriage between second and third cousins, but one should look it up and see what the local law is for first cousins because apparently there are states that allow this kind of marriage as well.
If you’re now thinking that you’d just love to have such a cool teacher, well join the club!
Watch Silberman explain the cousin terminology in the video below.
Please SHARE this with your friends and family.
@silb0017 Reply to @brungee #fyp #teachersoftiktok #cousins #family @silb0017 ♬ original sound – Kevin Silberman
