To find it odd my brother still calls family friends

[AdrienneVole]

Auntie and Uncle?

Mostly they are a very distant relative but he calmly tells me he saw Auntie Carol and Uncle Colin in Tesco.

I am 35 and he is 38 ffs!

I don't see anything wrong with continuing to call someone auntie and uncle if you grew up doing so, it's common in some cultures. That said, I think some people are being a bit unfair on OP, who hasn't made fun of their sibling? She just thought something he said was a bit funny, she's not disowning him! This is why we have to have lighthearted in thread titles.

Don't go to the likes of Singapore then. Every older random man or woman in the street is called uncle or auntie.

My oldest friends grandmother was always known to everyone as Babcia till she died recently, and we're almost 40. I couldn't imagine calling her anything else.

I read once that the word for stranger in Russian is auntie or uncle (not sure if thats true as i don't speak Russian).

I tend to refer to my aunts and uncles by their first names in conversation with others but always as Auntie/Uncle to them. Including the "yer mam's best mate" ones. It is a bit of respect and family.

My mother is a bizarre woman, believes in hierarchy and respect for elders, complete deference - she's very narcissistic. She also refers to the aunts/uncles she likes as aunty/uncle and ones she doesn't just by their first name. Has on numerous occasions spat venom about some of them especially once my father had died when I was 16 and isn't very nice about her sister (whilst still referring to her as aunty x). I remember vividly the conversation my parents had when I was about 5 that they wouldn't stop if my uncle (who'd swindled them out of money) was in the middle of the road. I find the uncle/aunty thing all very grating and my mother's attitude towards the aunty/uncle thing has completely clouded my judgment where family is concerned.

Dh and I refer to family as aunty and uncle with dd and what she does after that, is her choice. I was aunty x to my cousins dd as a child. I'm just x now. With dd we refer to my aunt on my mother's side as Tata. It's French for aunty. Dh is French and started calling her that as a joke before we had dd. I like that a lot. And it has the added bonus of driving my mother crazy jealous.

If people choose to call others by aunty and uncle because they love to, why not?

Sorry got a bit heavy there, still trying to get over many issues with mother.

I don't have nderstand why you would suddenly stop calling your aunts and uncles 'aunt x, uncle y' is there an age limit?

I don't have nderstand why you would suddenly stop calling your aunts and uncles 'aunt x, uncle y' is there an age limit? well the OP wasn't talking about ACTUAL aunts and uncles! The title is clear FAMILY FREINDS and in the OP VERY DISTANT RELATIVES. Not parents siblings which are true aunts and uncles!

Why are so many people having trouble with that?

No trouble here! Whether they are ACTUAL aunts and uncles or not, they have been given and been known by these 'titles' always! So, I say again, why would you suddenly stop and what is the age limit?

No trouble here! Whether they are ACTUAL aunts and uncles or not. But the OP was talking about not, and you answered regarding actuals so yes I would say trouble understanding the OP

Perfectly normal here to do that! In Yorkshire everyone is your aunty or uncle

I am considered peculiar because in my family we don't use Auntie and Uncle even as kids. (MIL hated it that I did not insist that my kids use it) I think that we didn't use titles because some of my mother's siblings are more or less my age. In some cultures however it is a sign of respect to use Auntie or Uncle to all adults. DD's close friend is like this no matter how many times I ask her not to she insists on calling me Auntie which sounds even odder when she is with my neice and nephew who don't. If she doesn't use Auntie she uses Mrs..... which I dislike even more.

Well I would have the same question than oldear.
At what age do you expect children (teenagers? Adults?)!to stop using the wording aunt/uncle for family friends?

And as a poster mentioned that before, when would younexpect your dcs to stop calling you mummy?

the day my best friend's step daughter stops calling me Auntie Dancing I'll be devastated!

I've dropped it with most of my actual relatives to their face but would probably refer to them as such. If they were always known that way then it's just a mode of reference to you. It's up to him whether he still calls them that to their face!

I work with a woman who constantly refers to her "big sister" and her "wee sister" they're 54, 53 and 52.

I feel like saying I don't give a fuck if they're older or younger!!

The lovely Asian man where I buy groceries is uncle. The lovely retired teacher in church from Liverpool is uncle.

I'm in my late 40s, and it's the way I was brought up. It's not strange in my African community

My aunts and uncles like to be addressed this way. I like to please them.

Yep. YABU. My brother and I still call our parents friends aunty and uncle. Done it all our lives be weird to stop now.

When I was a child my mum went back to work and a neighbour Mrs B looked after me and I called her Nannie. She died when I was in my twenties and she was always my Nannie. I'm 51 and the aunts and uncles in Ireland are, well some of them are still auntie and uncle, but some of them aren't, but that's mostly because I had different names for them when I was a child, that they kept. I went to meet one of them from work way back when - he lived in the UK with this family - and I asked for him, calling him by the name I'd given him as a child. Peewee. He never lived it down.

Oh and my friend's daughters and another friend's nieces all call me Auntie Raven. I've told them that they can call me Raven if they want to, but they all still call me their auntie.

YABU.

48. My much esteemed mother is 'Mummy', my father's sister is still 'Auntie Joan' and if I ever encounter my parents' best man he is still 'Uncle Roy'.

Here's a suggestion: you could enjoy the eccentric dottiness of it...

My fathers side of the family have actually told me that they prefer to be called by their names, so fair enough, I do.

However my mother's side ( both sides are extensive, but my mother's very much more so.) prefer to be called Aunty X and Uncle X. They take great pride in having such a large, tight knit family. I actually feel quite often that I'd like to move there, although I'd lose my specialist consultant, with who I get on well with. I'd definitely get invited and vice versa, far more for cups of tea and chat. Especially as I'm disabled.

When we go over, we are welcomed far more than my parents. Long story cut short is that for ten years my parents broke contact with them, whilst I didn't. I refused to take sides. After all, there's a side to every fall out and I wasn't going to accept third hand gossip. They were all still my aunts, uncles, cousins, second cousins. We must number about 200 on that side. And yes, my arm does ache after writing all these Christmas cards😂! But, I wouldn't change them for the world.

My DM's talking of disconnecting again when the four main aunts pass away and is dictating that I should do so as well. I feel quite angry that at my age she's still trying to twist the knife. I guess though that my DM's non contact turned many of them away from her, whereas it didn't with me as I continued. I just told them that I wasn't taking sides. End of. I do get hugged more and more embroiled in conversation, which totally piss's DM off. That's not my problem though. However, I feel that all my family are precious, however distant they are. I absolutely love how they welcome me like I only saw them yesterday, even though it was months ago. They're very tactile and everyone hugs everyone.

It has actually been proven that tactile touch is far healthier psychologically as it produces a feel good hormone. It probably explains why all my aunts and and three of my uncles are well into their nineties. One pair have just celebrated the 80th wedding anniversary😵😂!!! I have some very fond memories, that I really and truly treasure, of them all when I was a child, living with my grandparents for long periods of time due to a "dysfunctional childhood," with my own DP's. I have felt that they were the only ever really safe, stable, loved, treasured, parts of my childhood. Playing card games and other board games with my grandparents and aunts and uncles, having a drink with a small splash of alcohol, the sweetie tin, the fruit bag and my DG's homemade beer!

I hold onto those memories strongly because I have far more negative, physical and emotionally memories that I'd rather try and forget, or at least put them back to the back of my mind. I know people say we should forgive, but there are certain things a child can experience that a would never deserve a simple sorry or an act of forgiveness. No way...

I call my friend 'mother' - and she's only about 8 years older than me!

ACTUALS or not. Aunt and uncle is how they have always been known......

I think it's a generational thing, my dh does it too. I find it hilarious how him and his brothers and sisters all refer to family friends as 'auntie' and 'uncle'
I think I offended SIL by laughing when I first heard them saying it as it sounded so odd coming from an adult.
Still, everyone's different.
I do call my actual Aunties and Uncles 'Auntie' and 'Uncle' though.

I'm a fair bit older than your brother and still call my parents' close friends Aunty and Uncle. There are about half a dozen people left who get this title. I have grown up knowing these people and they were the ones who were there for me when my Mum died, when my children were born, etc. They are as good as (if not better than) blood family and I call them Aunty and Uncle as a sign of my love and respect for them.