What does an Aunt mean to you?

Artytarty

Nothing more than being the sister of the mother or father.

Lagoon

When I was younger, it meant very little. I didn't see my aunts often, and when I did it was a treat but we didn't know each other too well.

Now, my aunts are my closest family. They ARE the ones that always looked out for me, and it was their prior distance that helped us to have the strong bond that we've got now.

Family has only become important to me in the last few years, and I feel very lucky to have such great aunts.

Being an aunt to me means caring for a child AS their parent, and helping to raise that child under the parent's rules rather than your own, but being someone else that they can go to and that can take on more of a 'friend' role as well.

pollypenny

It depends how often up see them and how well you know each other, I suppose.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

It's not the genetic connection that matters - anybody can be an Auntie, whether you acquire the title or not.

It's about being someone a bit older that treats the person as somebody special to them.

geoffky

I have a aunt who i think of as my sister ..My parents took her when she was young to get her out of an abusive situation..
I also have a fav aunt who died a few years ago and i miss her like mad..
The other aunts are just aunts..

katie1812

I don't class my aunties as anything amazing. I don't speak to them that often, and only see them at big family occasions, eg. My wedding. We live two hours from one and four hours from the other, and with work and their children it's hard to find a time to meet up to be honest.

However, being an auntie is really important to me. We have three nieces and one nephew. All on my husbands side tho. Two of the nieces I have been their auntie from their birth, and am godmother to, the other niece and nephew are a little older and I hadn't met hubby when they were born.

I love the four of them dearly, with the older ones we just have a laugh when we meet up and go out, the younger two, aged 3 and 1, are obviously very young and so I look after them sometimes and I am more of a role model to them than the older two (of course still a role model) which means an awful lot.

lazywife

Having observed this for a couple of generations:
If you have no children of your own, you cherish your nieces and nephews. The time you spend with them is reflected as sole attention to them, so they cherish you too.
If you have children of your own, sadly your nieces and nephews are no longer your single focus so they pay less attention to you as you pay less attention to them.
As you age, it's down to how much time quality time is spent together.
L.xxx

ilovelondontown

I have 4 blood related aunt's (My mothers sister and my father's 3 sisters) and 3 aunt's linked via marriage. I also am an aunt to 3 adorable children, who I love dearly.

I'm close to all of them in different ways, some closer than others but having aunt's and being aunt's has always felt like extensions of my mother and I hope that when my niece and nephews get older they will feel that way about me.

Moby_Tide

I was brought up aware of people I called Aunts/Uncles but only some were actual blood relations, others were just the best friends of my parents and/or my godparents.

My wife was similar and we've continued the same. We live away from family so whilst the chi,dren know they have aunts and uncles they also mostly see those we call Aunt/Uncle from around us, again it's generally people who are Godparents and a couple who are just good friends. mostly it's just a way of identifying those people we think the children should trust and be able to go to if worried, likewise we have friends who have kids who refer to us as Uncle/Aunt and would hopefully see their kids approach us in the same way. None of us have ever sat and made lists about who we class as one or not, it kind of just happened

marisco_2

I had some funny aunties. One was a total hippy who lived on a farm and had a whole menagerie of animals. She and my uncle were the black sheep of the family because they were a bit out there, occasionally did drugs and were vegetarian. Much to the shock horror of my maternal grandparents. I thought they were great but only saw them occasionally.

Another aunt was a bit twitchy and liked things just so. My identical twin sister and I use to wind her up something rotten. My mum went through an ill advised phase of dressing us the same but use to put us in different coloured shoes. So we use to swap when she was out of sight, and have one shoe of each colour on our feet just to confuse aunty. The only other way you could tell us apart was that my sister had a beauty spot on her cheek. So I would use a pen and put one on myself too. Aunty Jo was not amused.

Then there was another aunty with issues about her age! We were not allowed to call her aunty as she thought it made her sound too old. Please, like not calling her that made her look or be any younger than she was. It is a wonder I turned out so normal considering the weird people I grew up surrounded by :rotfl: