My sister is pregnant!

[trollnystan]

Hey congrats! Being aunt/uncle is great, I have five nieces and nephews, and I'm honorary aunt to three more. But they're all way past being babies/toddlers now (three of them are over 17!) and I miss that stage a bit... I'm feeling very broody, lol. STOP IT OVARIES I'M NOT LISTENING.

Like you, I doubt I'll have kids of my own - especially now that I'm soon 32 and only ever had the one boyfriend - but I've always loved kids so I'm lucky to be surrounded by so many. Now if only my brother and his wife can start breeding too... BABIES BABIES BABIES!!

Damn ovaries...

 

[SecondPrize]

Grats! Being an Uncle/Aunt is the best. You can be indulgent as you wish and then hand them off when they get cranky or it's time to be a meanie. They grow fast as all hell, don't blink.

 

[babinro]

I had the complete opposite feeling when my brother became a father and thus I an uncle.

I was selfishly sad at the fact that I'll barely be able to hang out with my brother anymore and that turned out to be true. Parenting is exhausting and eats up all of your free time. About twice a month he could get out of the house to have around 90 minutes to hang out. This was nice and all but it's just not the same.

In addition to the realities of being a parent I hate kids for the lack of a proper term. I get anxious, stressed and uncomfortable around them even when they aren't interacting with me. Just being at their house with kids mostly in the next room will typically lead to headaches within an hour and I just feel worse the longer I'm there. Natrually it feels even worse when they want to interact with me.

My family understands how I feel about it and they begrudgingly accept this for the most part. They still try to push child interaction upon me but they know better than to ever ask me to babysit or even watch the kids for a few minutes which is a good balance I suppose.

For me, life was WAY better before becoming an uncle. But again, that's just my selfish take on the situation and is no fault of the kids in anyway. They seem like perfectly normal happy children who may or may not wonder why their uncle avoids them and acts distant compared to all their other guests who give them constant attention and fun.