Do your children call your friends by first names or aunt and uncle?

[TwentytoTwelve]

What do you expect/what do your children call your friends ie if they’re called Mark is it Uncle Mark or Aunt Rachel or just Mark?

Well, I'm Irish, living in Ireland, married to an Irishman, and surrounded by all of our Irish families and friends, and I don't think I know anyone still doing this, beyond some very young children.

DS has called all his aunts and uncles and grandparents by their first names since he was pretty young. I'm in my mid-50s and while my siblings and I definitely addressed our own aunts and uncles as 'Auntie X' and 'Uncle Y' when we were in primary school, we never addressed our parents' friends that way, and we'd dropped the 'Auntie' etc by secondary school age.

I would have said that using 'Auntie' and 'Uncle' for your parents friends was far less prevalent in Ireland than in parts of the UK where I've lived, and definitely more prevalent among my Asian friends in both places.

Auntie and uncle, but my kids friends all call me Mrs Mom

I didn't realise my family had disintegrated because we don't use aunt and uncle. You learn something new every day. Dh (Irish like me) always used first names for his aunts and uncles growing up (age 60 now so would have been unusual enough then). They still managed to be close/still are close. amazing really considering they were fostering rabid individualism and the breakdown of society.

Never, really. Not family friends or relatives. Ive never called any of my aunts or uncles just by their first names. Nor has my husband.

Always just first name for anyone who isn't a relative. True aunties and uncles get auntie or uncle plus name while the kids are small (at primary) but gradually move to just using first name.

This is one of those things where I think there's been a massive and quick shift. We grew up with family friends as aunty and uncle and all other adults as Mr and Mrs. I don' tknow anyone who is referred to this way by the children in their lives. It's been a complete 100% about turn.

But we also give up seats for older people so maybe we are just old school

yep my friends are auntie and uncles to my kids. They are the best aunty and uncle better than their blood aunts and uncles. Where i live in west yorkshire it is a cultural working class thing.

First names generally, but if a friend is closer to you than someone who is a blood relative, no harm in using aunt/uncle, especially if you feel people might object to a non-relative taking your kid out.
Never used titles for friends, only teachers/doctors etc.

Only my daughters godparents get auntie and uncle. Everyone was just their name. I had to call my mum’s work mates auntie for no reason.

What a weird thing to judge and allow to make you feel uncomfortable.

It’s one thing for it not to be for you , but judging others expressions of family and closeness is very odd

Nope. Not the ones we've known since we were little. My husband didnt even know his Aunty C wasn't his real Aunt until he was in his late teens! It's not even a big thing, it's just how we were raised.

First names for everyone including aunts and uncles.

Just names. My DC didn't call actual relatives Aunt and Uncle either.

No, why do people keep asking that? People other than travellers have tradition and standards.

Mine called my friends by their name. When I was a child it was auntie...back in the 60s.

You'd just be thought of as rude or someone would make a comment like "I'm looking for a wee Michelle, my namesake" to highlight that their nephew or niece can't be calling her by her first name so must be calling a child named after her.

My best friends will be my children’s aunts (and vice Versa) that’s how we’ll refer to eachother with Dc, if this adapts, changes or gets dropped that’s fine - but I hope it doesn’t!

My older children dropped the aunty and uncle (for their actual relatives) part once they were about 5/6 I suppose and just went with first names.
My youngest we use aunty and uncle for their actual aunts and uncles plus one set of extremely close friends akin to godparents, they will probably transition out of it at some point in the next few years.

I'm loving the idea that addressing your parents' friends and siblings and 'Auntie' and 'Uncle' is somehow preventing the total breakdown of society.

I do find it slightly alarming that @Lexibletheflexible 's husband was labouring under the delusion that he had an extra aunt until he was in his late teens. I mean surely, whatever you call them, a teenager usually knows who are his parents' siblings and who aren't? Even when families are big -- DH's mum is one of 13, and none of them are known by their actual names but some quite strange family nicknames, and he still knew which ones were his uncles and aunts!