Growing up, extended family, aside from grandma, lived very far away and I’d maybe see them at most twice a year. Most of the people I grew up around were my parent’s friends and their kids. They’d call their friends “uncle and auntie” around me, surprisingly, relatives would be called aunt, pronounced “ant”.
49 comments
No. They were by their names.
Yes, my parents called their adult friends “aunt” and “uncle” around us.
No
No.
No. With my parents, that term was reserved for an actual aunt/uncle (by birth or marriage)
No.
Yes, every adult was “uncle” or “auntie.” Took me years to figure out we weren’t actually related 😂
No, they just used their first names. We called them Mr./Mrs. <Last name>.
Nope it was ms or mr for all adults growing up for me. I have a friend who does it now and I love being an aunt to her little
Yes, but also Mr. or Ms. first name, just depended on how my parents introduced them to us.
No. growing up my parents just called them friends. Today I have a few SIL who will refer to their girlfriends as aunt to their kids.
A few select friends were called Aunt/Uncle but not all of them
No. We called them by their names.
Not in my family no. We had enough extended family that calling more people aunt/uncle/cousin would just muddle things. I know people who did do that. Just wasn’t common in my family. Sometimes my dad’s friend would visit, or my mom would go out with her girlfriends. None of them were referred to in familial terms unless they were actually related though
Depends on the culture.
Yes, the friends my parents liked the most and with whom they maintained longterm friendships were referred to as aunts and uncles. We definitely understood the difference between them and more traditional aunts and uncles; if anything, my parents had warmer feelings towards their friends than their in-laws, though.
My friend currently does this
ETA: My parents didn’t
No
No: <title><surname>
Yeah, my dad’s friend was called uncle. I think its cute, and one day I hope my future kids will know my best friends as uncle.
Only for a couple friends who were especially close and the friendship went way back. Basically they were honorary family members. Everyone else was just be their name
No, my parents were very specific that those terms were for family only.
Yes. My parents friends were referred to as aunt and uncle.
Grew up with a single mom in the 80’s. All her love interests were uncle such n’ such which was a common way to thwart stigma at the time but in retrospect sounds super fucked up.
My parents didn’t do it, but I had friends whose parents did it. It’s not something that’s determined strictly by race, but I think overall white people are not as likely to do it.
No, but my parents didn’t have friends
Yes absolutely, i still call them Aunt/Uncle as an adult too
yea, all of my dad’s friends were Uncle So-and-so.
Yes!
I called a couple of my parents’ closest friends aunt and uncle
A particular friend of my mom’s was an “aunt”, yes.
No, I only called my actual relatives aunt/uncle. ETA – that’s not even true, now that I think about it. I wasn’t directed to call my actual relatives Aunt/Uncle First-name either.
Not my parents, but now that I’m an adult, I’ve seen people my age (38) have their kids call me Aunt. It’s weird too, some of these kids I haven’t seen more than once and their kids calls me Aunt!! Very odd to me 🙂↔️
There was a guy who came around once in awhile that my mom called Special Uncle…but I never got a formal introduction..and was always told to go out and play..for a few hours..
Yes, very common
In the south, yes.
Yes my parent’s best friends and closest friends even one is my godfather who my dad trusted
Yes
Yeah. But it’s also part of our culture that you can close friends etc as Aunt X or Uncle Y etc. I think it’s similar in many other cultures as well though, including American as well. Most of the kids of my close friends would call me Uncle, I think it’d be weird for their kids to just call me by my first name or Mr. Last Name or whatever.
No. We called them by their first names. But it was mostly my mom’s friends. My dad didn’t really have any close friends who weren’t family. My mom is his best friend. He didn’t ever really hang out with any men unless they were the husband of one of my mom’s friends
No, close friends of mom and dad we just called them by their first name. Not so close friends like neighbors was Mr. Or Mrs. Their last name. We did call my mother first husbands family the same as my brothers did. So my mother’s first husband’s sister was called aunt her first name.
I had an honorary ‘uncle’ when I was a small child. But my parents never called him uncle.
No. The definition of ‘aunt’ is one’s parent’s sister or sister-in-law.
Some absolutely. In norway. I still call them that.
My mom’s best friends were my “aunts” and now my best friend’s kids call me and my husband “auntie” and “uncle.”
Nope. Not at all. I referred to my uncles and aunts as Aunt/Uncle + their first name.
I didn’t have this growing up, but my kids do now.
We explain they’re people we aren’t related to but we love them.
Now my oldest daughter wants every one of her friends to be a cousin
I think only one friend had the title of Auntie. Everyone else was Ms. or Mr. First Name
Yes and no. But it wouldn’t just be auntie/uncle, it’d be Aunt Linda or Uncle Mike etc