General Etiquette > Family and Children

Adult Nieces and Nephews...

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Thipu1:
...How do they address you?

The trread about calling the In-Laws 'Mom' and 'Dad' brouhght this to mind.  I hope it will be a fruitful discussion.

Mr. Thipu's sister (who I'll call Ann) is considerably older than he is.  Ann married immediately after finishing university and had her first child when Mr. Thipu was 13 years-old.  Of course, her children called him 'Uncle'. 

By the time I entered the picture, Ann's 3 children were all at University (I know, God help the parents!)  The 'Aunt' and 'Uncle designations seemed a bit stilted.  Everyone involved was an adult.  We liked the same music and many of the same authors.  When we all went out for dinner together Mr. Thipu was carded more often than his nephews. 

We let them know that the honorifics weren't necessary but old habits die hard.    When it was just the immediate family the children called us by our first names.  When family friends werein the pictures we became 'Aunt' and 'Uncle'.

The question is now moot.  All Ann's children have young children of their own.  Everybody above the age of 8 has an honorific to set a good example. 

I know there are people who are the same age or younger than their nieces and nephews. How do they handle this sort of situation? ???     

Pixie:
All 29 of my nieces and nephews (ages 10 to 39) call me Aunt Pixie because its what they've always called me. So do all 14 of my Grand-nieces and nephews.   They also call my Hubby "Uncle Tallman".   Its just how things are done in our family. 


Well..... except for a few years my oldest nephew renamed all of us!

His Mom, Sharon was of course=Mom
His aunts and uncles became....
Audrey= Aud

Gayle= gay

Christine= Ris

Jay= Jay

Renee= Nae

Larell= Rell

Karl=  Row

Me====Ree

Laren= Ren

Kelly=  Lee

Tony== nee

Carolyn= lyn

Once nephew hit school age, we all got our names back.... for the most part.   He still calls the 4 of us  Rell, Row, Ree, and Ren.... when he's being affectionate.

lolane:
Well, I have no siblings, so I have no nieces or nephews but I can tell you what I call my aunts and uncles. I call all my aunts and uncles on my Dad's side aunt x or uncle x when I am addressing them directly, but I call them by their first names when I am refering to them in conversation even if I am talking to another aunt or uncle for instance if I were talking to aunt pheobe about aunt sarah I'd say, "Aunt Pheobe, I was talking to Sarah and...") I only refer to my mothers oldest brother as Uncle x. I refer to her older sister and younger brother by their first names.  I always use Aunt x or Uncle x when talking to or about my great aunts and uncles.

Interestingly my fiance's neices and nephews are all older than him or a couple of years younger (he's was a suprise baby), and even the ones who are older than him call him Uncle X.

ZipTheWonder:
I still use "Aunt Herfirstname and Uncle Hisfirstname."  Can't change it after all these years!

My family's children have always called us by our first names, which I hope symbolizes the friendship we have.   My husband's family's children have always called me "Auntie Myfirstname," which I adore.  :)

sammycat:
My dad is the youngest of 9 kids, and my mum has 1 sibling.  I used to call them all aunty and uncle but somewhere along the line, probably in my 20s, I dropped that and usually just call them by their first names.  Not sure when or why that happened really.  I'm now in my mid thirties and most of my cousins are older and they use a mixture of aunty/uncle and just first names. Sometimes though I do still use "aunty" and "uncle".  I call all great aunts and uncles "aunty" or "uncle".

My children and 2 young nieces call all aunts and uncles by the terms aunty and uncle.  My husband has 5 nieces and nephews in their mid to late 20s and they still use aunty and uncle.

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