to call someone that is a good friend of your parents Aunt or Uncle?

Or a really close friend your cousin?

Or older people your grandparents?

[Edited on May 18, 2010 at 3:37 PM. Reason : lol my bad strictly]

5/18/2010 3:34:58 PM

STRICKLY

5/18/2010 3:35:30 PM

STRICKLY

5/18/2010 3:35:37 PM

we call everyone our parent's age uncle/aunt in India

5/18/2010 3:35:53 PM

strickly?

I've never done this or heard of people doing this. It must be your parents creepy friends.

5/18/2010 3:36:05 PM

That sounds like strictly a sawahash thing. Idk, my mom had a coworker in the USPS that I called uncle. Maybe?


PS: Strickly sounds like one of those Jon Reep words.

5/18/2010 3:36:29 PM

Im born and raised in the south and I've never used any of those terms for reasons other than their real use.

5/18/2010 3:36:48 PM

pretty common everywhere from what I can tell

5/18/2010 3:37:01 PM

i do the aunt/uncle/cousin thing

5/18/2010 3:38:00 PM

two friends call me Aunt LK to their little girls. one is our god-daughter and the other is kind of a niece-in-law (for those not paying attention, my bff from hs's older sister married my brother)

However, I don't call any of my parents' friends or other elder not directly related to my parents Aunt or Uncle

5/18/2010 3:38:25 PM

If it's not a Southern thing, it's a coastal thing girl.

Everyone in the 252 does that shit. My mother's best friend was known as Aunt George (Obviously her name was Georgia) until she passed away, although that's my most prominent example.

5/18/2010 3:39:36 PM

i have several sets of parents and many brothers who are not blood related

5/18/2010 3:39:41 PM

I did it when I was younger.

My best friend says that her kids are gonna call me Aunt Sarah

5/18/2010 3:39:42 PM

i call my grandmother's boyfriend my grandfather

because my real grandfather died when i was 7 (and the other one before i was born) soooo he is really the closet thing to a grandfather i've ever had. and its just easier to not have to explain the complexity of certain relationships to others. like if i say "boyfriend" "companion" or "special friend" people always need an explanation. if i just say "grandfather" i seem like a normal human being

but i dunno- other than that i never called close family friends aunt/uncle. or my next door neighbors who are older than my parents and who have BEEN like grandparents, i just called them by their names - not by any nick name.

5/18/2010 3:39:52 PM

When I was younger we had an adopted set of grandparents and an adopted uncle. Probably because the grandparents and rest of the family was so far away.

But it kinda makes sense calling your parents best friends aunt and uncle. I mean best friends can seem just like a sibiling.

5/18/2010 3:41:41 PM

nope


My mom was born and raised (cue bel aire) in NYC, and her side of the family was the one that introduced me to this

I have a couple uncles and aunts that are in no way related to me (I think her highschool and college friends)

5/18/2010 3:41:56 PM

i could see a real young kid calling one of the parents friends "aunt" maybe, but only while they're real young. besides that, i've never heard of any of that and my family's from Fuquay

5/18/2010 3:43:52 PM

i've heard of the cousin and uncle thing, thats not strictly southern

Quote :

"Or older people your grandparents?"

never heard of this

5/18/2010 3:44:00 PM

yes, if said person basically acted in that role and seemingly fit the title.

5/18/2010 3:44:56 PM

yea i can actually see it being common in the north too.

like with mob families

don't all italian people have like 500 uncles but none of them are really related.

5/18/2010 3:46:30 PM

you cannot refuse their offer!

5/18/2010 3:47:23 PM

We may or may not have 500 uncles that may or may not be related.

5/18/2010 3:47:41 PM

^^^haha well this is the Italian side of the family (my grandfathers ties to everything are still debatable)

5/18/2010 3:48:54 PM

that's right! STRICKLY! wanna fight about it!?

5/18/2010 3:51:27 PM

My family of Nash and Edgecombe County folks did not do this when I was growing up, however I have cousins/friends who refer to me as "Uncle" when they talk to about me to their really young kids (toddler age). It is kind of weird to me, but I think it's just an easy way for them to relay to their children that I'm a trusted member of the family without going into details that they wouldn't understand. I'm sure when they get older they'll use a more strict definition of the word.

[Edited on May 18, 2010 at 3:52 PM. Reason : l]

5/18/2010 3:52:10 PM

Quote :

"^^^haha well this is the Italian side of the family (my grandfathers ties to everything are still debatable) "

ahahaha that is crazy i didn't even know you talking about your italian relatives.

yea - really the north is the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about calling non-family members "uncle." i just imagine having like uncle tony, uncle mikey, uncle vinny. but none are ACTUALLY uncles. then again i watch too many movies

5/18/2010 3:54:17 PM

We call our Dad's aunts and uncles "Aunt ___" and "Uncle ____" when we should call them "Great Aunt ___" and "Great Uncle ___"

We used to call any cousins that were 2nd cousins once removed, Aunt or Uncle.

It's a lot easier to say "Uncle Hayes" than "Second cousin Hayes once removed" when you're a kid. The latter is more fun to say though.

5/18/2010 4:28:25 PM

yea i call my great aunt and uncles just plain "aunt" or "uncle" - or just their name. i think that is pretty common.

and i call my 2nd cousins plain ole cousins. i mean my family is big but big and close so its all whatever. too confusing to keep up with labels and WAYYYYYYY too confusing when you try to explain to other people. so i try to keep it simple like

5/18/2010 4:32:57 PM

It is strickly a southern thing to use the word strickly

5/18/2010 4:33:34 PM

They do this on How I Met Your Mother, unless somehow the mother actually is related to everyone in the cast.

5/18/2010 4:35:04 PM

my mom has a really good friend that i call "Aunt Gina". I also call Aunt Gina's parents Aunt Becky and Uncle John even though i'm in no way related to any of them.

and my granny has a sister who is significantly older than her that my mom and (real) aunt call "Granny" because their grandmothers were dead by the time they were born. so for that reason i call her "Granny Edna" instead of Aunt Edna or something like that.

here's a related fun story: me and deemarie had been dating for a few months i think and she had met my Aunt Gina and her husband and their kid. well deemarie goes to this family reunion of hers and sees them there and is like "oh fuck, wtf incestuous shit is this?" and calls me and is like "you aren't actually related to Aunt Gina, are you?" and i have to assure her that we're not related. deemarie isn't technically related to them either b/c they were there through a marriage on Aunt Gina's husband's side of the family, plus her husband is adopted, so there's plenty of degrees of separation there to keep it not weird. it was still kinda funny to get that phone call.

i live in a sitcom, y'all.

5/18/2010 6:25:12 PM

I didn't know people actually watched "How I Met Your Mother".

5/18/2010 6:28:08 PM

5/18/2010 6:29:01 PM

^^what? how i met your mother is pretty funny!

^^^ well there was that adopted kid that knocked up his grandma. people did not think separation was ok there no siree

^

[Edited on May 18, 2010 at 6:29 PM. Reason : .]

5/18/2010 6:29:20 PM

This is also the case in the Middle East...so i'd say no not just southern thing

5/18/2010 6:30:36 PM

kinda normal I thought, though my parents didn't do it.

5/18/2010 6:32:03 PM

5/18/2010 6:32:09 PM

i thought uncle jesse actually was the uncle to the cousins (daisy, bo, luke)

5/18/2010 6:33:17 PM

I think its a black thing

5/18/2010 6:33:47 PM

^^ yea. and uncle jesse on full house was the dead mom's brother, so actually an uncle. uncle joey however, was not actually an uncle.

5/18/2010 6:34:21 PM

^^ I'm as white as it gets.

5/18/2010 6:36:41 PM

5/18/2010 6:39:14 PM

In Indian diaspora it's about as common as breathing.



Hi Uncle, Hello Auntie.

5/18/2010 7:42:22 PM

i'm still mad at the failboat who fucked up uncle jesse from full house.

clearly, they need to study up on their full house family dynamics

5/18/2010 7:45:30 PM

so was aunt becky really their aunt?

5/18/2010 7:52:47 PM

Naw, you just need to realize how pointless and shitty that show is.

5/18/2010 7:52:51 PM

Aunt Becky was their aunt. Uncle Joey was some creepy manchild.

5/18/2010 7:56:53 PM

Mr. Woodchuck would have made a cool uncle

5/18/2010 8:05:48 PM

I have two people that I refer to as Uncle and Aunt who are not actually related to me. They were my next door neighbors and father's best friends.

Now, I refer to *alot* of people as my cousin. However, they REALLY are my relation of some sort. And if you have five minutes, I'll be happy to explain to you the relationship. Cousin is just the easiest name that I can put to it. My mother is one of 9 and my paternal grandfather was one of 14. That makes me related to damn near half of Pitt County.

5/18/2010 8:16:10 PM

Set 'em up, sista.

5/18/2010 8:17:19 PM