who are your kids' "aunts" and "uncles"

LynsiBHM · January 2012

Do you have anyone that your kids refer to as Aunt or Uncle that are not actually your sibling/SIL/BIL? Why or why not?

The_Jen626 · January 2012

All of our friends are referred to as "Aunt Kristen" and "Uncle Aaron", etc.

ETA: After reading the other responses and thinking about this more, it's because DD doesn't have any "true aunts or uncles", DH and I both have lots of half-siblings and step-siblings, but no true blood siblings. So DH's "sister" (not a blood relative, DH's Mom married Dana's Dad, and they have since divorced) who he has grown up with and is close with, is "Aunt Dana". We just extend that to all of our close friends.

I'm a firm believer in "your friends are the family you choose", my friends are my family.

JOEBunny · January 2012

My kids have one "uncle" who is not an uncle. He has no children and is 50 and just getting married, and only has one nephew who lives in Indonesia. Otherwise, they have my BFF and her DD who we are very close to, but they have another "pet" name for them that DD made up.

susanmosley · January 2012

No. Because they aren't her aunts or uncles

MamatoJackson · January 2012

A friend of ours who lives a couple hours away is "Uncle Boyd." He's 40, single, don't think he's ever had a girlfriend so it sounds kinda' creepy but he is the nicest guy. He comes to stay with us for a weekend a couple of times a year and he's the best, least-intrusive, chill house guest ever. The kids adore him and love rifling through his suit case and interacting with him.

Mrs.Hizzo · January 2012

We don't use that term outside of family. I think it's sort of disrespectful to their real aunts and uncles.

Sharon21 · January 2012

Mrs.Hizzo:
We don't use that term outside of family. I think it's sort of disrespectful to their real aunts and uncles.

Yep, this.

laney75 · January 2012

We casually refer to some of our good friends as "Aunt Heather" or "Uncle Thommy". I don't know that we're super consistent with it. I suppose it could be confusing because they do actually have an uncle and two aunts, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

nonoemily · January 2012

In our families everyone is called by their first name. No aunts and uncles, no grandma and grandpa even. My SIL's 2 year old daughter calls her by her first name, even. I don't know that I'll take it that far, but it's just something my family has never done.

JessesGirl&MackenziesMom · January 2012

We have two "aunts" and two "uncles"- four people who we know are in our lives and her life for the long term. My BFF, DH's BFF, DH's BFF's DH, and DH's BFF's twin (who is a second BFF to him).

My BFF took it upon herself to start refering to herself as "aunt" and bought DD a shirt that says "my aunt loves me". My sister doesn't care because DD wears a shirt that says that, and my sister didn't have to pay for it. She LOVES that actually. My BFF lives 12 hours away and I am calling her right. now. because this topic makes me miss her.

jaeleigh25 · January 2012

A few of my cousins that have kids in DD's generation are "aunt and uncle". But other than that, I don't think so. A few people call me aunt when I am not, but it doesn't bother me.

goldenleaves · January 2012

Real aunts and uncles, cousins of mine we see often- about 6it (I don't have any male cousins we see regularly, so just aunts there) and my BFF.

charlatti · January 2012

nonoemily:
In our families everyone is called by their first name. No aunts and uncles, no grandma and grandpa even.

Same here, though we do say grandma and grandpa. We call them "your aunt Y" or "your uncle X" when we're talking about them, but we just call them Y or X in person. So we definitely don't use aunt or uncle outside of family. (Plus DD has a lot of biological relatives anyway.)

ijustcantthinkrightnow · January 2012

Yes. Their Godparents (who aren't family), and their respective spouses.

I am not super close with my half siblings and DH only has 1 sister/BIL. If we had other friends we were closer to then I wouldn't see a problem with it, I have a few "aunts/uncles" that were super close friends of my mom or dad and that's what I was raised to call them, so I never really though anything of it.

ashleyhuney · January 2012

My DH is an only and I have a much younger brother who sees the kids once a year and isn't very involved. My son does call him Uncle Adam. My good friend is called Auntie and I don't think it's disrespectful to my brother (who couldn't care less.) She totally deserves the title. She sees the kids weekly even though she lives almost an hour away, never shrinks from the nitty gritty of "parenting", is a huge help with dishes, etc and of course spoils them with affection, outings and mama approved gifts. She is single, child free and my kids are extremely important to her. My kids are lucky to have her as an Aunt.

notkateanymore · January 2012

We have an Uncle Bart...but who knows how it started. It's a friend of ours who's a big goof and loves DD to pieces. Besides that, nobody really.

Mrs.Hizzo · January 2012

nowababy:
Sharon21:
Mrs.Hizzo:
We don't use that term outside of family. I think it's sort of disrespectful to their real aunts and uncles.
Yep, this.
Wow, really? I never thought about it this way. We each have one brother and DH's bro has a wife. We also refer to our really close friends as aunt/aunti/uncle in front of DD. I never thought it was disrespectful to the blood ones. In fact, I thought of it as showing respect to our really close friends who are like family but not taking away from blood family.
Growing up I referred to my parents' close friends as aunt/uncle and I have 16 blood auntis/uncles (and that doesn't include my parents' cousins who we also refer to as aunt/uncle). Never seemed to be an issue.

Well, obviously I don't care what anyone else does in regard to this. To each their own. But, yeah, I think if you have brothers or sisters that you're close to, "aunt" and "uncle" ought to be reserved for them and not just thrown around willy-nilly. Like, I wouldn't let my kids call an older woman "grandma" if it wasn't their grandmother, and they don't refer to their close friends as "cousins."

And actually, I was sort of irked when I was at my sister's and some good friends of theirs were over, and the husband told my niece to go "find Aunt X" and ask her such and such. The deal is, they prefer their kids to call adults "Mr. & Mrs." but they're around my sister/BIL a lot, so to in-formalize it, they told their kids to use "aunt/uncle" and styled themselves the same way. I realize in the grand scheme of things, it's not that big of a deal, but I did find it irritating.

wifeandmama · January 2012

I hate the faux aunt and uncle thing. We don't do that. They do call my aunts and uncles (their great-aunts and uncles) aunt and uncle, though.

littlemermaid · January 2012

Only their real aunts and uncles have those titles. Our real close friends are referred to as Mr/Mrs/Ms Firstname.

Cherryblossoms07 · January 2012

My close friends call themselves my kids' aunt. They have only done this over the phone and on FB as they have never met my kids since they live across country now.

Hope2Have · January 2012

Sharon21:

Mrs.Hizzo:
We don't use that term outside of family. I think it's sort of disrespectful to their real aunts and uncles.

Yep, this.

I kinda worry about this, but my bff is always Aunt Whitney b/c I've always been aunt Kelly to her son. Also my cousin who introduced us to the bmom is aunt jennifer... but I don't actually love the idea... just is what it is.

Katieh6 · January 2012

My two closest female cousins and their husbands. We are incredibly close and we have always considered each other sisters. Our moms are sisters and super close we see them more then we see DHs brothers. We also call dh's lil brothers male partner uncle since they have been together 8 years. My kids call my close friends Miss so and so.

GibsonGirl620 · January 2012

This was going to be my UO next week, lol! DH and I agreed to use those names for only true aunts and uncles. I feel like otherwise it turns into such a gray area with our friends. Like its a popularity contest of who is good enough to earn the aunt/uncle title. Plus, my SIL and BFF have the same first name so it would be confusing to have two Aunt Hollys. That's our go-to example If anyone questions it.

LynsiBHM · January 2012

Mrs.Hizzo:
nowababy:
Sharon21:

Mrs.Hizzo:
We don't use that term outside of family. I think it's sort of disrespectful to their real aunts and uncles.

Yep, this.

Wow, really? I never thought about it this way. We each have one brother and DH's bro has a wife. We also refer to our really close friends as aunt/aunti/uncle in front of DD. I never thought it was disrespectful to the blood ones. In fact, I thought of it as showing respect to our really close friends who are like family but not taking away from blood family.

Growing up I referred to my parents' close friends as aunt/uncle and I have 16 blood auntis/uncles (and that doesn't include my parents' cousins who we also refer to as aunt/uncle). Never seemed to be an issue.

Well, obviously I don't care what anyone else does in regard to this. To each their own. But, yeah, I think if you have brothers or sisters that you're close to, "aunt" and "uncle" ought to be reserved for them and not just thrown around willy-nilly. Like, I wouldn't let my kids call an older woman "grandma" if it wasn't their grandmother, and they don't refer to their close friends as "cousins."

And actually, I was sort of irked when I was at my sister's and some good friends of theirs were over, and the husband told my niece to go "find Aunt X" and ask her such and such. The deal is, they prefer their kids to call adults "Mr. & Mrs." but they're around my sister/BIL a lot, so to in-formalize it, they told their kids to use "aunt/uncle" and styled themselves the same way. I realize in the grand scheme of things, it's not that big of a deal, but I did find it irritating.

This is why I asked. I became an aunt before becoming a mom. My brother has 1 daughter. I was her only true Aunt (her mom is an only child) and I was very excited to be an aunty... love her like she's my own... etc. I was PISSED when I heard my (now 7y/o) niece calling her mom's friend "Aunty Kim." I was like I AM YOUR ONLY AUNTY!!!!

I never had faux aunts and uncled growing up (with the exception of my parent's aunts and uncles... but I just called them what my parents called them..) and found it kind of strange.

Well, my bff (also distant {3rd maybe?} cousin and college roomie) and her hubby (who has become one of Hs closest friends) got P some Christmas gifts and signed them "from Aunt___ and Uncle____.) We had never really discussed it and never referred to them this way. I wasn't offended or anything. They adore him and probably just didn't think much of it, but I really don't want him growing up calling them that. He HAS aunts and uncles and those people are just (very close) friends.

Just wondered if I was being weird or how you all felt. Clearly it's a mixed bag.

I plan to just kind of let it slide. I think as long as we don't refer to them as Aunt and Uncle, he won't either and they will drop it.

lucylea · January 2012

We are closer to the kids' Godparents than we are to any of our siblings so they are called aunt and uncle, but that's the limit. It bothers me when everyone gets the title. If we weren't so close to those two they wouldn't get it either. They are the kids' legal guardians as well so we are about as close as we can get!

chocoholicchick · January 2012

Yes, all of our close friends are referred to as "aunt" or "uncle." To me, it's just a sign of respect for people close to us. We also have a very small immediate family since I am an only child and DH only has one sibling. Our friends are like family to us.

zeesbride · January 2012

Yes, this is cultural for my husbands side of the family. I also have her call my BFF "auntie"...but she truly is a sister to me. Otherwise people are Miss/Mr.

Daisy77 · January 2012

Funny enough, the one friend they referred to as "Aunt" was my former close friend who recently de-friended me on FB. She referred to herself as "Aunt _____" and I didn't mind, even though our kids have 8 aunts through siblings (including SILs through marriage).

AgrippaRidesAgain · January 2012

Just their actual aunts and uncles. Friends of ours are Miss or Mr. First Name.

laurakaz13 · January 2012

My first cousin and her husband are going to be called Aunt and Uncle. She is more like my sister and is my best friend in the world.

Otherwise, our good friends will go by Miss First Name or Mr. First Name. This is normal in the South.

StephNJer · January 2012

DH and I are both only children, so my kids have no real aunts and uncles. They have MY aunts and uncles, who they call "aunt" and "uncle" but they are great aunts and uncles to them, obviously. So yes, we refer to our close friends sometimes as "aunt' and "uncle", but it's just a term of endearment. They know they aren't their real aunt or uncle.

Not having any siblings, my friends are as close as I'm ever going to get.

Amaryllis619 · January 2012

susanmosley:
No. Because they aren't her aunts or uncles

this. my DD has 10 aunts and 6 uncles... i think that's quite enough. (we are both from huge families)

shellzano · January 2012

My Best friend and my DH best friends he has 3 of them. My DH is an only child so he don't have anyone else. Oh yea also our cousins they are also uncles and aunts.

Want a personalized experience?

who are your kids' "aunts" and "uncles"

Re: who are your kids' &quot;aunts&quot; and &quot;uncles&quot;

Choose Another Board

Search Boards

Want a personalized experience?

who are your kids' &quot;aunts&quot; and &quot;uncles&quot;

Re: who are your kids' &amp;quot;aunts&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;uncles&amp;quot;

Choose Another Board

Search Boards

who are your kids' "aunts" and "uncles"

Re: who are your kids' "aunts" and "uncles"