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The Auntie Era Has Arrived
An increasing amount of women are opting out of motherhood…but are still raising the children of the world
I have just spent the past two months working late nights, traveling back and forth across my state, soothing nonstop tantrums, and cooking, cooking, cooking for six constantly hungry children.
I don’t remember what it feels like to be able to go to bed when my body tells me I’m tired. I don’t remember what it feels like to pee when I have to pee, or eat when I have to eat. I don’t remember what it’s like to go to bed without guzzling two glasses of water when I finally realize I haven’t had a beverage of any kind for the past several hours.
This might not sound noteworthy to some. With the exception of the endless road trips, this pretty much sounds like #momlife, right?
Except I don’t have any living children. This is, believe it or not, #auntlife.
My youngest nephew, Alex, who is four, just had his first open heart surgery to correct some of the many heart defects he was born with. I traveled across the state in early May to be with him for the week before surgery and helped my sister with her other five kids during that very tumultuous time. Then I brought the older five kids home with me, on another trip across the state, where my mother and brother and I cared for them during the time Alex was in the hospital.
And after Alex was released from the hospital earlier than expected, we made a fast change of plans and I loaded the kids up and took another trip across the state to bring them home and stay for another week so I could be with Alex during the early days of his recovery.
This process was so much harder than I ever thought it would be. What is worse than knowing the child in your life that you love so much is suffering? And not being able to be there with him? It was horrific to witness this from afar. (And I have no doubt it was even more horrific for his parents who had front row seats to the whole affair.)
It also brought up a lot of other issues for me that I’ve struggled with for years. This all happened around Mother’s Day. Childless women who are reading this will understand exactly what that means without…
