Support Staff

Some of you on Twitter/Facebook already know that i became an aunt last Wednesday. Among all the well wishes were comments/questions about how/whether I will be spoiling my niece.

My answer is that I won't be spoiling my niece.

I will love and protect her, but I will not spoil her.
I will teach and advise her (if/when asked and if/when appropriate) but I will not spoil her.

I will leave the spoiling to her grandparents, as is their hard-earned privilege. But I want to be the aunt she calls when she needs a confidant. I want to be the aunt that reminds her that her parents are people too.
But more than anything, I want to be the aunt that teaches her, by example, how to be awesome, healthy, and strong.

I will teach her how to throw a punch one day when she's much older, and how to make a proper cocktail when she's legal.

But I will not spoil her with food or toys, just all the love she can handle.

That's the kind of aunt (or as I want to be called, Tia) I want to be.

But I want to be a good role model for more than just my little niece. I want to be that for all the people in my family. I want them to see me chasing down the (long) life that eluded my mother (as well as maternal grandfather, paternal grandmother). I want them to live long, healthy, strong, and awesome lives.

But it starts with the commitment I've made to myself, and those promises I renew each and every day.

4 comments

Sarah mod

May 30, 2012 at 4:11 PM

She's beautiful! Congratulations!

Sarah
www.thinfluenced.com

Kelly mod

May 30, 2012 at 5:48 PM

She is precious! My niece calls me Tia Kelly (we're Colombian, she is half & half Russian). Although in her little voice, it comes out Teely Kelly. :-)