aunty kim

I'm almost sure I'm not the only person in their early 20's who finds it a bit odd when called 'aunty' (or in the case of guys: 'uncle')......

So here is what happened:

I'm on the couch thoroughly engrossed with the BBM convo's I am having. In the background there are the sounds of a child (the son of my Mom's friend) and his Leap Frog, and the conversations of Mommy and her friends chatting. Then somewhat out of the blue, there is a voice....a little voice speaking in excitement.

Him: Aunty..Aunty..Aunty..........(somewhat shouting) Aunty Kim!

I honestly lifted my head with a confused look on my face [it was such a confused face that I could feel it]. I turned to him and started laughing....but his expression indicated that he was in no way amused by my ignoring him (whether I was aware of him calling me or not).

Him: Aunty why you ignoring me?!
Me: I'm sorry hun...what's up?
Him: I was showing you something but you take so long it's gone 

Then of course after a few mumbles to himself, he eventually started ignoring me (how ironic). I went back to smiling to myself as I watched him and his Leap Frog with his random mumbles as he either succeeded or failed.

Within a few minutes it hit me that he calls me Aunty because to him...I'm old! What was funny is that it isn't the first time I was being called Aunty by a child. The difference is this....at camp and for the toddlers at church, they call you aunty because that's what they call their teachers/caregivers at day care.

In this case, this was the child of a family friend calling me Aunty because to him I was old....like his other Aunties.

To be sure I had it right, I even asked him.....and his response was pretty much 'duh...because you're name is Aunty Kim' and I then thought about the fact that it just makes sense to him in his little world.

It did take me aback a little, because I have no other lil ones in my family who call me Aunty Kim....to be honest I usually get a number of variations of Kim/Kimmi/Kimberley including 'Timmi', 'Kimerly' and a bunch of other ones that I know I can't spell but they usually sound cute.

I have now accepted though that I'm passed the age where I can just be 'Kimmi' to the little ones....So besides the fact that I felt super old for a few minutes.....I think I'll work with 'Aunty Kim.'