Being a long distance aunt

[Apapaia 25]

Hello everyone!

In this post I'd like you to share your personal experience about being or having an aunt or uncle that lives far away from you.

My sister has 2 beautiful children. The first one is Christian, he'll be 7 in 2 days and the second one is a pretty little girl, her name is Giuliana and she'll be 6 next July.

Since the day they were born, I've always been very very present in their life. I was always at all their birthdays, school recitals, first days of school and important events in their young life. Christian moved his first steps to come to me and Giuliana gave me her first beautiful teethless smile. I've also been the official baby sitter and the one that takes care of them whenever their parents can't. They spend often the night with me and I love to read them stories and lay in the big bed with them until they fall asleep. I love to talk to them, listen to what they have to tell and what they think of things going on in general. I've always thought that adults can tell the kids anything using the right words and we do talk about anything they wanna talk about. I'm very very close to them and they're my pride and joy.

When I left Italy to go get married in the States it was very very hard for me to not miss them. I think they were actually the only people I really missed while I was away from Italy and I couldn't just bare the thought that I was going to miss their birthdays or school accomplishments and I couldn't hang out with them as much as I used to. Sure computer and Skype make things A LOT easier but they're the apples of my eyes and I need to have them in my life as much as possible and I want to be in theirs as well.

We have a saying here in Italy "far from the eyes, far from the heart" and I am so scared this could happen to them and think I forgot them or don't love them anymore. I still wanna be their friend and have them count on me while they grow up even though I won't be able to be physically present!

I was thinking of different ways to still have the special thing between us so I thought to buy nice paper to write letters with a nice pen to the 3 of us and use it to write letters to each others so that when they see that special envelope in the mail, they know right away it's from me and nobody else will use the same paper.

I am still looking for other ideas to keep that special connection between us alive and I was hoping you could help me with ideas and share yours experiences as well. Do you have a special relationship with any member of your family that lives away from you? Do you have niece and nephews that you don't see often but always think of?

I'd love to hear everyone's experiences, thought and ideas about it. Or even if you just want to say how much you love some kid in your family and post pictures!

Here I'll post few of my little devils!

This one is the most recent of me and Giuliana, we were in a theater waiting for a play to start

http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/5626/giulyezia.jpg

And this one is the most recent I have of me and Christian (and a little bit of Giuliana). We were in the parked car waiting for school to start.

http://img841.imageshack.us/img841/3513/chriezia.jpg

[MeredythB 38]

I am a long-distance auntie to two also, Emily (17) and William (12). You simply have to make time. Have a Skype conversation. Write an email. Make sure Christmas, birthdays, and special events are noticed. You'll get out of it what you put into it.

[Apapaia 25]

I am a long-distance auntie to two also, Emily (17) and William (12). You simply have to make time. Have a Skype conversation. Write an email. Make sure Christmas, birthdays, and special events are noticed. You'll get out of it what you put into it.

Hi, thanks a lot for your answer and forgive me if I am so late. I'm glad to hear that you still have a good relationship with them. How long have you been away from them?

I sure plan on writing them letters, emails and calling them as much as possible but unfortunately because of their age they don't always like to talk on the phone and they're very young and don't always like to write.

I'd like to hear if you have any "trick" to keep little kids interested in a video-call with the overly emotional aunt and how the long distance relationship with your nephew and niece works.

Thanks a lot

[VeeNDee 44]

I have a young niece I used to babysit all the time now. Now I live MUCH closer to her than you do but I probably won't see her that often, at most once a month or every other month. I am wondering how to stay close as well. One of the things I was hoping to try for when she gets older is to have her spend weekends here (perhaps for you it would have to be a little bit longer since it would be expensive). So I could be the aunty for getaways. I agree with the previous poster that Christmas, birthdays and special events will be the most important. I was actually closest to my aunt and uncle who lived the furthest away (a 5 hour flight) because we only saw them every two years growing up but we'd stay for 2 weeks and spend the whole time with them (we got to hang out on their farm). They were very special to me. Just because you are far away doesn't mean you will be forgotten. It just means the relationship might be a different type of relationship. My husband has an aunt who was very close to him when he grew up. His closest auntie he said. But one day she moved to another state and never really returns his family phone calls, etc and didn't make it to our wedding. So it all depends on the kind of effort you make I think. Even if they aren't interested now, they will remember how you tried later on. I think I'm partly saying all of this to reassure myself about my own niece!!!! Any other ideas?

P.S. This past month my niece took her first steps and I wasn't there to see it. Earlier she had her first birthday party and I couldn't go since I don't have AP to travel yet. I got to see a video later but it made me realize there are some things that you just can't be a part of while you are far away. Sigh.