By Fakhitah Yusuf
We have Father’s Day and Mother’s Day, but have you ever thought about Auntie’s Day? There is a national day dedicated to our aunts too. It is celebrated on the fourth Sunday of July every year. This year, the day falls on the 28th. An aunt is the sister of our parents, which makes them related by blood. Having an aunt is also possible by marriage, which means she is the wife of our uncle, the brother of our parents. Most of us would have an aunt. Except if each of our parents is an only child.
Having an aunt could be a great experience, especially when you got a cool aunt. There is also the famous saying of ‘becoming a rich aunt to spoil the nephews and nieces’. It is one of my dreams, too. Well, this is a story from an aunt who has seven nephews and three nieces, with two upcoming baby nieces.
I would like to share my experience of babysitting them. I would like to use the word ‘nibling’ to refer to both my nephews and nieces. It is a word combination of sibling, nephew and niece, and is not registered in a dictionary but has been used frequently in social media. The oldest nibling I have is eleven years old, whilst the youngest is seven months old. Now, there is a difference between babysitting my nibling in school and not, which means between the children and the babies.
Babysitting the children is not that hard, as far as I experienced it myself. However, their developing brains and their curiosity are such a big challenge. It is worse when they are finally able to speak perfectly. They will ask a lot of questions. So much that they can make you sigh heavily when answering their question. Sometimes, you will be unable to answer their questions, and sometimes, it is not possible for you to explain to them because they are still so young. Well, the best solution is by saying that they will find the answer when they grow up.
For the babies, they will not bother you with too many questions, but you will struggle with what they want, especially when they start to cry. I had a bad experience babysitting my baby nieces, who just reached three months old. I would say I was going insane when all she did was cry. I tried everything from feeding her milk, changing diapers, putting her to sleep, and making her bathe because she might be hot, but nothing worked. She only stopped after her mother came home. It is just for a half day, but I think I lost my hearing already listening to her non-stop crying.
That was a bit of my experience as an aunt for 10 niblings. I hardly see them anymore because we live in different states. I am also busy as a student, and couldn’t be a rich auntie yet because I am broke. However, having them in my life was such a blessing. They make me laugh to my heart's content with their antics. My Eid experience last year was the best because we had them in our hometown. Therefore, Happy Aunt’s Day to my fellow aunts, and enjoy your little nibling companions as much as you can.
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