I will never forget the day I held my first nephew in my arms. I was only 8 years old, but from the moment I looked in his big blue eyes I knew I had a best friend that I could spoil for the rest of my life. Now I’m 20 years old and that same little nephew I held in my arms so many years ago is now taller than I am. He’s almost 13 years old! I also have had the joy of watching my nephew, of age 3, and two nieces, of ages 2 and 10, grow up.
There are so many joys that come along with being an aunt. One of these include that you are basically a parent but the twist is that you have no responsibility besides making your nieces and nephews happy. For example, when your nieces and nephews come over to spend the night, you get to be the cool aunt that feeds them tons of chocolate and lets them stay up late. You don’t have to deal with their crankiness the next day. That’s their parent’s issue, so that next day before they get irritable, you pack them up in your car and drop them off at home. Your brother or sister might not be too happy about this but you just became the best aunt in the world, so does it really matter?
Another joy would have to be the FaceTime calls you get when you are away at college. Sometimes I am having the worst day where all I want to do is cry and eat mounds of chocolate. Then I hear my phone go off and I see that it’s one of my nieces or nephews. Right when I hear them talk, all of my stress goes away because they are pretty much the most adorable kids in the world. They always make my day better!
Speaking of adorable kids, they will start to dominate your conversations. Just like grandmas like to show off pictures of their grandchildren, you will start showing random people that you meet pictures of your nieces and nephews. You find a way in almost every conversation to talk about how good they’re doing in sports or the newest word they learned to say. Pretty much you become an old lady trapped inside a young person's body. But again, do you care? Nope because they are perfect!
Lastly, you get to hear about everything first. Right when they have a crush on somebody they call you and tell you. If they do something they know they’re going to get in trouble over, they call you to bail them out. You’re pretty much the filter helping them decide what to let their parents know, and what to keep a secret.
In the end, being an aunt is the most rewarding thing there is. Parenting might be fun in the future, but when you’re young, spoil your nieces and nephews until there’s no more to spoil them with!
