How to Be a Neighborhood Aunt, Teenage Version
Last Monday, 14-year-old Toby woke up in a bad mood. Dreading a long week of school, he thought about what might make him feel better. So, he sent a text…
“Hey, want to go to dinner tonight?” he asked my friend Leah.
For the past four years, she, Toby, and her daughter, Sydney, have gone out to dinner once every season. They all love the ritual so much.
Their very first dinner was in 2021, when I had Covid. “How can I help?” Leah had texted me, earlier that day. I’d told her that Anton was happy mucking around at home, but Toby was restless — he kept knocking on my bedroom door, lamenting that I couldn’t let him in — so could she ever take him out for pizza? Within an hour, she was at our door.
The evening went beautifully. Whenever Toby loves an activity, he immediately declares it “a tradition,” in hopes that it will happen again. And this time, it worked. Leah became his neighborhood aunt.
The meal usually includes bread, pasta, Shirley Temples or ginger ale, and dessert. “It’s called ‘Auntie Rules,’” Leah laughed. “The rule is, they can get whatever they want.”
“At first, we’ll start off being silly,” Leah told me. “We’ll play Heads Up or I Spy. But during the last 20 minutes or so, Toby usually starts asking questions and opening up, and then I’ll hand my daughter my phone, so he and I can talk.”
Anton is always invited, but he likes to stay home for some quiet time. “Now instead of trying to convince him to come, I bring him a treat,” Leah told me. “Like, s’mores pizza or a yo-yo.”
I’m enormously grateful that Toby and Anton have a trusted adult — outside the family — who roots for them and is always there for them. “A relationship with a teenager is special,” Leah told me on the phone. “Over the years, we have talked about your divorce, his friends, girl stuff, school stuff, all kinds of things.” She pauses, then adds, “I envision this friendship for life.”
P.S. How to be a neighborhood aunt, baby version, and 10 things I love about parenting teens/preteens.
Tags: neighborhood aunt, toby
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100 commentsI have the honour and the privilege of being an actual auntie to my sibling’s 4 daughters, and because I’m significantly younger than my sibling, I’m actually closer in age to my nieces ages — think just shy of a ten year age gap. I used to live under the same roof with them when I was fresh out of college and trying to deal with finding a place to rent while under a load of student debt, so I had been around the girls since they were little, but we had never been all that close. Then I moved out but their parents still had me join them for Sunday dinners just to touch base and stay in each other’s lives. Once I showed up to the dinner with just the girls even though their parents were out of town, just to chit chat and make sure everyone was all right, the house hadn’t been burned down in their absence, etc. So I was pleasantly surprised when one of them opened up to me about teen relationship drama, made more complicated by the fact that the antagonist was one of her up till then close cousins. She asked me to keep it secret from her parents, and I agreed only if no one involved was in immediate danger. She poured her heart out and I just listened. Honestly I think she just wanted an adult to weigh in who wasn’t her parents (who are mostly cool but can also a tad bit judgmental at times), and to tell her that her feelings were valid. No one was in actual danger so I kept her confidence, and told her she could come to me for advice anytime she wanted or just a place to vent. Later on when another cousin spilled the tea (including the fact that I knew all about it) and all the parents involved were in an uproar, my sibling was low key shocked that I knew but hadn’t said anything. But my loyalty was to my niece, and the most important outcome was the sometimes misunderstood teen realized that here was an adult she could trust to have her back. Of course if there had been any sign that the parents should’ve been looped in I would have told the teen I had to inform her parents, but there was no such indication so her confidence could be safely kept between us. As a result we talk a lot more even today and I like to think she’s more secure in knowing that there are ppl in her extended support system she can rely on for help.
This is what we all hope to have for our kids! I am an “elder cousin” and when I was about 26, my aunt asked me if I could help my cousin (who was about 14) with his science homework weekly. I LOVED this ask, and spending time with him. I read a great article by Katherine Randell this year (probably linked on C of J) where she described why so many kids books depict parentless kids – to centre the other supportive adults in a way to help kids see those in their own lives. Yes yes yes
The pic where Toby is holding Leah’s daughter’s hand is just priceless. What a great kid he is!
Gotta love those ACES protective factors 💗 yes yes yes
First of all, I love Toby for this tradition….just delightful. It reminded me of my neighborhood aunty when I was 10…Kara Lee. Delightful, supportive, treated me like I should be taken seriously, which I craved. I am 57 and just dropped everything to text her how much I love her. Friends for life indeed.
I love Toby, and these are definitely my people! Last night crying all over the place watching “Love on the Spectrum”, and now this. Everything feels so mean out there, and highlighting beautiful humans, or even better, hanging out with them, is healing my heartache.
This is so beautiful. I really try and be an Aunt for the kids in my neighborhood (my editor at ELLE UK, Kenya is my neighbor and her kiddos are a delight) but maybe I need to up the ante and take the oldest for dinner!
I love this! A practical question: who pays?! Do you send him with something to cover his share? Do you Venmo her? Do you just cover something at a later date for her? I’m so curious how these things work!
I pay and it’s my pleasure to do so! (It’s part of my Auntie-Spoiling mode :)). Tody does say thank you a million times from when he texts to make plans, throughout dinner, when I drop him off, and usually the next day. Oh and Joanna picks other stuff up all the time so it all comes out in the wash.
How beautiful <3
Tears!!!
Omg. Toby is so awesome. Auntie Lea is so wonderful. And her daughter is SO GORGEOUS! I couldn’t stop staring at her face in these first pic, what a cutie pie. I love this tradition for them.
❤️❤️
Honorary aunts, or “grown up besties” (which is what my daughter calls hers, are so important! She’s lucky to have two in her life, two of my besties. She texts them pictures of her outfits, asks to go shopping or thrifting with them, invites them to her shows, and I hope she will always feel like she can call them or text them whenever she needs adult help, if for some reason she can’t tell her dad or I. Having an adult in your life that loves you, that sees you, but isn’t obligated to you like a parent, is such a special gift. I love watching her relationships with these “grown-up besties” evolve as she’s moved into middle school.
This is amazing!!! Flashback moment…I spent a lot of time as a kid sitting around a kitchen table, talking to my friends’ parents. I learned a lot by chatting with the older folks in my life, and have very fond memories of those times. Toby is so lucky to have an “older” friend/neighborhood aunt:) And the smores pizza looks delicious-must try!!!
Such a lovely post. I have a 14 year old boy. Up until a couple of years ago, several of his friends used to drop by constantly at our home and I used to share meals with them or take them to movies, restaurants at times. Now, being teenagers and busy being on their electronic devices or ebikes, we hardly have these kids stop by anymore. It is lovely that your son has this trusted adult that he can freely call/text and arrange for dinner dates. We have a middle school kid a few homes down the road from ours. He moved to the US only a couple of years ago and is working on English proficiency and due to visa issues his mom and dad split their time and be with him half the year. He is a grade behind my son. Quite often, he would ring our door bell on the way to school bus stop which is 2 min walk from my home, to just stopby and chat. My son can be grumpy and would be rude to him and say things like, “What do you want”?, “I can walk on my own” etc etc. I had tried talking to my son that this other kids feels comfortable enough to stop by our home and say a quick hello, maybe he is missing his mom or is trying to make friends, he might act weird because of language barriers etc etc and asked to be nice and kind. Yesterday, I showed this article to my son and told him how teenagers sometimes need connections with other adults who view them with their non-parent lens. Today morning, this kid again rang our bell 15 mins before school time and after few initial 2 min conversation initiation by me, they both then started having conversations regarding his dog, breed etc. My son on the way to school then asked, “Was I kind?”, “Are you happy?”. So, Thank you for this lovely post.
May everyone (especially every kid) in this world find their aunt Leah. Absolutely amazing and I, too, envision their friendship for life.
This is my favorite post on COJ, in recent times. As someone who is childfree but has a number of little people in her life, the responsibility towards whom I take very seriously, this post was a reminder of all the ways in which I can be a part of their lives and be someone they can rely on, always. Gosh, I love all my little people so very, very much. So thrilled for Toby.
I had the same thought! I’m also childfree and lately have been reflecting more on my decision. But seeing examples of having relationships with kids without being a parent is such a great reminder that I can still have an impact on the next generation!
Lovely! When I was a teen, I had bonded with a neighbourhood uncle – a retired family friend who lived a few doors down. We shared a love of aviation (I would later take him up on a flight when I got my pilot’s license) and he loved to see my dog if he was out in the yard when I walked the dog past his house.
Watching Toby grow up to be such a young man is such a privilege for us all
This is beautiful, and it’s what every teen needs! It doesn’t have to be a fancy or expensive meal out, either. A walk around the block, a park bench and a thermos of Swiss Miss, kite flying, a Fortnight night, it could be anything. I’m still dear friends with the guy who invited me, at 16, to join his rock band. Now he’s 63 and I’m 41, we’ve made 5 albums together and we still have the best talks.
I LOVE THIS. I want this for my future child! I want to be this for someone else’s future child!
I’m crying – this is the sweetest thing ever! Goals for myself to find a non-family niece/nephew and for my kids to have a neighborhood aunt!
This is so sweet. I rely on my friends for emotional support (and kid carpooling haha). I have no family in the area, so my friends are everything to me!
Wholeheartedly concur with this precious post – all the feels. Going slightly off topic, would you mind divulging the smores pizza recipe? It looks like it would bring ALL the kids clamoring to the table!
Hi! I own the pizzeria so we cheat, but you can ask your local pizzeria to buy dough. Then use oil oil on a cookie sheet, and bake until almost done. Spread nutnella and marshmallows, and throw them back into the oven until the marshmallows are brown. Take out and let the kids throw on whatever other candy their hearts desire! (Anton prefers the sour patch variety :))
I meant olive oil not oil oil! And don’t forget to spread the dough as thin as you can get it before baking the first time!
Gah, thank you so much for responding! And then, you took it up another notch with even more brilliant advice – additional candy toppings!! I can already envision the stunned looks of amazement when I pull this divine treat out for our next Fun Food Friday spread. Thank you again Leah!
There’s also the totally different relationship of Neighborhood Granny. At age 3-4, my own grandma would occasionally let me walk to her next door neighbor’s house, where I would knock on the door and visit the elderly “Miss Madison,” who would usually give me a little snack and talk to me for ten minutes or so, and then send me back. I still have a little children’s book that she gave me that was probably hers as a child. Likewise, around age 3 (wow, small towns in the 90’s were crazy!) my younger brother befriended an elderly woman who lived across the street. He called her Grandma Froot Loop and was allowed to go knock on her door and go in a visit for a bit. My youngest brother, befriended another older woman who lived three doors down. He would go visit her and she would always hold back a special full-sized candy bar for him on Halloween. I never thought about it before, but I suppose these (mostly homebound) ladies were probably delighted to have a small child show up on their doorstep for an occasional visit. It also fostered a bit of independence for us, giving us a safe place to venture away from home for the first time, and probably gave our mom a little break.
Wow. That is the sweetest thing I have ever heard. My own very homebound MIL is the newest neighbor in a midwestern suburb. I cannot even imagine how happy this would make her.
Completely agree. An elderly lady lives near my home by herself and I befriended her. Since I cook quite a bit, I sometimes offer her excess food that I make and she loves it. She sometimes brings cookie or meat dishes that she cooks at her home for my son ( i dont cook meat at home). She feels comfortable enough to ring me up sometimes and ask if I have food to share as she didnt feel like cooking dinner for herself.
I love this and am so grateful for those who fill the gaps in my child’s life for me—she’s super extroverted and wants to be out and doing stuff ALL the time. Emotionally and physically, I just can’t. So lucky to have many close friends who will text and ask if my daughter wants to join them plant shopping and to chips and queso….or to a HS basketball game etc. Most of them are older/their kids have grown and left and they enjoy the teen chatter. :)
Whelp, didn’t think this was the post that was going to make me cry today!
I am the trusted friend/aunt to my good friend’s daughters who are now 17 and 20. I love how our relationship has evolved over the years. Years ago, we bonded over our mutual love for nerds candy and exploring abandoned (but safe) buildings in our area and now we bond among other things, political discussions, still supplemented with nerds clusters! The 20 year old and I had a 700 day tiktok sharing streak, until the overnight ban! I cherish the things she sends me and gives me a peek into her college junior brain. Sometimes its videos of silly pigs or cats, other times its people expressing their deep concern for the state of our country. Recently, it has been her own tiktoks of her participation in the Hands Off Rally in little Ithaca, NY. To say I am proud is an understatement.
I’m a solo mom and my kiddo has a handful of “fairy godmothers” – they are a vital part of our family! Three cheers for the neighbourhood aunties!
I’ve loved reading all of the “trusted adult/honorary aunt” stories on here for years, but thought maybe it wasn’t for me, since I’m a mom and I work and I don’t have a lot of time to spare. This winter, I got my chance to show up for an honorary nephew of mine! On a ski trip with my high school friends, who all have kids now, I became the designated supervisor (with both knowledge and patience) of my 7 year old pal, who was really skiing for the first time! We rode the lift together, he bravely held my hand, and I basked in the glow of his trust. His mom kept saying it was the “last run” and he needed to let me go have fun skiing on the big slopes with the more advanced group, but I truly would have stuck with him until we both were too tired to keep going. Months later, my heart swells at the memory.
Oh man, this is just wild to me (in a wonderful way). I grew up in a small, conservative town, and all the adults in my life were authority figures whose expectations I had to live up to. I’m about to have my first baby (37 weeks today!) and am always inspired by how Joanna relates to her kids. I hope I can channel some of this in my own parenting.
and now I’m adopting Toby’s enthusiasm in calling “tradition” on all things I’d like to repeat. Genius!
I am crying this is so beautiful.Oh, how I long for deeper friendships for me and a trusted circle for my social toddler. This is #goals
I cried too!!
I grew up with several neighborhood aunts and it meant so much to me. I am child-free by choice and I really hope to be this for the kids in my life, it is so beneficial!
It’s so incredibly valuable for kids to have people who root for them outside of their family. What an absolute blessing, especially for tweens and teens! Going to work on becoming someone’s honorary aunt.
Someone* should make a Neighborhood Aunt website or app that connects parents/kids looking for aunts in the neighborhood to people who’d like to be one. Yes, I know I know–safety is an issue & would have to be thought out, but so many of us don’t live near our families (or are estranged or the kids are all grown) and community is so important! I love spoiling kids but don’t have my own, for instance! *someone with coding knowledge and extra time and focus to carry out this idea but still give me a large amount of credit, lol
Kara, you may be interested in being a mentor! You might take a look and see if there are any mentoring orgs in your community. Could be Big Brothers Big Sisters or more localized situation. I have been mentoring for over ten years and it is similar in many ways to being the neighborhood auntie. One of my mentees, who is now 22, still comes to me for life advice and it is just the best.
This exists! The Big Brothers, Big Sisters of America program matches kids who need more trusted adults in their lives with adults who want to connect and help kids in their communities. My mom was a Big Sister when she was in her 50s and missing having kids in her life. Check it out if it’s something you’re also missing.
I help out with FIRST robotics in my area and teams are often looking for mentors. You don’t have to know about robotics b/c you can help the teams with other things, like outreach, fundraising or marketing.
One of my goals is for each of my three kids to have a few “aunties” in their lives, and have those adults be the first call should my eventual teenagers find themselves in a position in which they need help, but don’t want their parents to know about. Of course, I will continue to affirm judgement-free, emergency support for my kids…but I know I would have benefitted, more than once, from calling an adult if I knew it wasn’t going to be my parents. And I have offered to be this person for other friend’s kids, too. A no-questions-asked, getting-you -home-safe, confidences-kept person that both my kid and I trust that is not related to either of us, feels like a such a safety lifeline for potentially tumultuous teen years!
This is amazing on so many levels and a good teaching moment for me. I am SOOOO awkward around my niblings who are in their teens now. I worry about how I act and I wonder what it is they need from me the most right now. I’ve landed on these strategies at the moment: just be myself, take their worlds seriously, and respond how I would to a friend. Wishing all the auntie and uncle relationships the best!
This is making me cry from the beauty of it! I love seeing how humans can care for one another in creative ways. May we all do and experience more of this!
I love this! How wonderful, all around. It reminds me of this Substack, The Auntie Bulletin that has great ideas for connecting with kids, whether you have kids or not: https://theauntie.substack.com/
Thank you for sharing. I checked this out and it’s wonderful
This might be the sweetest thing I’ve ever seen. As someone without kids, and with a niece and nephew I love but don’t get to see often as they live far away, my new goal is to become a neighborhood aunt!
This is just the sweetest.
This warmed my aunty heart. I don’t have kids but I am an aunt to a dozen kids through blood and friendship and this post reminded me to keep leaning in and loving them in big and small ways.
Whelp, my heart just burst. I love this for all parties involved.
What a gift Leah is – her offer to you, her unconditional love for your kiddo. She’s modeling friendship for all of us, young and old :)
This is the nicest compliment. Thank you, Keke! <3
Love absolutely everything about this. Thanks for sharing!
I’m so happy that they have each other! I think I was very fortunate to always have been embraced by my parents’ friends – decades later, I still refer to some of them as Aunt and Uncle. Community is so important!
If you’re interested in being an auntie-type person, I highly suggest getting involved with Big Brother’s Big Sisters! You can mentor solo, as a couple or family, or through their school. It’s one of the most meaningful things I’ve done, and 18 years later, we’re still close.
What a charming post! This really brightened my day. I don’t have kids but if I did I sure would love for them to have this kind of a connection to a trusted adult outside the family. Toby seems so kind — holding his little friend’s hand! Probably over time, he will become a bit like Leah is to him to Sydney — a trusted older brother figure. I can’t handle the sweetness!
My closest friends and I are in the thick of new parenthood, spanning a range of 4-month-olds (hi, me!) to three-year-olds. I so look forward to getting to those ages where we can look after one another, fill each other’s cups, actually hang out together with and without our kids. But this season is ROUGH for all of us, we’re all just trying to hold our heads up through the sleep deprivation, growth spurts, regressions/progressions. Reading this post gives me hope that we’ll get there one day, we’ll be the aunties we all need. Today just isn’t that day.
IT GETS EASIER! And you will be :) xx
This is so sweet! I wish I had folks in my life who wanted to do this for my daughter. I suppose that means others feel the same way, and I can look for opportunities to be an auntie too! ☺️
Off topic: but here to say I went to NYC for the first time and saw Maybe Happy After bc of your recommendation. It was SO good! My kids love the music now too and know the whole story bc they wanted to know all about the show I saw! It’s so sweet how into it they are! Also very surprised at how little we were able to actually do. Is it normal for it to take FOREVER to bounce around from one thing to the next in NYC? I’ve been wanting to go forever and I feel like maybe I did it wrong bc it was hard to cram in a lot!
This is very normal. Also many first-time visitors lose a whole afternoon (or day) by getting on the wrong subway car by accident and ending up WAY out of their way. This is also why I go months without seeing friends if they don’t live pretty close by.
How absolutely precious!! And the photo of Toby (in a black t-shirt) across the table from Leah’s daughter is SUCH a darling shot. <3
I have to know: does Toby’s sweatshirt in the first photo come in adult sizes? If so, how I can one? I love it!
https://global.nbastore.com/en/golden-state-warriors/golden-state-warriors-nike-city-edition-club-pullover-hoodie-mens/t-25253941+p-353356146706233+z-9-177692641?_ref=p-DLP:m-GRID:i-r2c2:po-8
This is so wonderful! Leah so knew how to support you in that first moment – and you knew how to accept her help – that’s two beautiful things – but then, the third is the fact that our kiddos need all kinds of loving adults around them and I think modern culture isn’t always as alert to this as it should be! Yay to aunties everywhere!
I’m so grateful for the adults in my life who saw me when I was a teen. Many are still part of my life now, and I can only hope that my own children will have other adults who they love and trust!
Elizabeth your comment made me realize that I didn’t have any adults at all who saw me as a teenager, something I never really realized before, but which would have been extremely helpful given my rocky relationship with my mother (I know I was an unpleasant teen but I’m sure I would have been more pleasant with a trusted adult!). I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how my (divorced) parents never really modeled community in my childhood – we weren’t part of any churches or clubs or anything, and I can’t even remember my mother having close friends for most of my life – and I wonder how that impacts my isolationist tendencies and how difficult I’m finding it to build community as an adult. That’s so great that you and Toby have a wonderful model for this!
Anon, take it from someone who’s also a reluctant loner, but raised by extroverted and community-minded parents in a house rarely without weekend visitors: sometimes we just aren’t our parents! Hosting makes me very anxious in spite of how well it was modeled for me. I wished I loved hosting like my parents do, but it’s just not my thing.
Absolutely precious <3
I like how Leah can adjust for introverts-extroverts! I did not have this as a child, but I hope that my kids have some trusted adults.
As a childless by choice woman, who loves kids (just also loves the life my husband, dog and I have!) Leah is living my dream. :) There would be no greater honor, or badge of coolness, than being a person a child or teens trusts.
This is beautiful, Lis! And lemme tell you what – as a tired working mom of 2 kiddos, we wouldn’t really know how to cope without our aunties and auntie-adjacent people. Some are close, some are far, but ALL love my kids so much, they are trusted adults and I am so beyond grateful my kids have these ladies in their lives. If you are looking to shine up that badge with the little people in your life, may I suggest writing them letters, taking them for hot cocoa dates, offering up an after school walk, bringing your dog or cat over for tea (no joke, this happens at our house and it’s the highlight of the season) reading a book before bed (works beautifully on facetime!) or offering to meet up during errands? Nothing is better – nothing! – than planning to meet up with your best auntie at the grocery store. The kids go bananas like they’ve spotted a celebrity when they see her in produce and you get to shop in peace while the kids and auntie chat their faces off as you roll through the aisles. I’ll buy all the hot dogs for all the aunties who wanna meet us at Costco these days!!
Ah, Lis, I love this comment. I have lots of badges of coolness in my life — I own a pizzeria for goodness sake! — but being Toby’s honorary auntie tops the list! And love your suggestions about baby steps, too.
I love this post. It reminds me so much of a beautiful friendship I am grateful to have with a woman I met 18 years ago when I was pregnant with my son, who is now 17. She became his instant aunt when he was born and when she married, her husband became his uncle. She had her own daughter about 7 years after my son was born and they became like cousins. Our families are family now-we vacation together, my son babysits for her kids, and we cheer each other on through the important moments and the mundane day to day. My son is a single child and my family lives far from us. Knowing he has an aunt and uncle a mile up the road with two honorary cousins, both who utterly adore him and look up to him, has been a godsend more times than I can count. Here’s to the unconventional ways we build family, to the friends who love our kids like their own, and to the bonds built because of those friendships! xo
I find this so moving! Toby sounds like such a great kid, your friend sounds wonderful, and all around this is so heartwarming.
I love this!! My grown niece–who is an aunt to my great nieces–were just talking about what it means to be a special aunt and what it means to kids to have one. Aunts sometimes get the hard questions, things kids haven’t had the courage to ask their parents, and it’s not for the faint of heart. I have had a niece ask me about talking to her mom about birth control. Another who was seriously ill called me up in the middle of my work day, and told me she was afraid she would die before she got a surgery she needed. And I dropped another off at a sober living the day after her mother’s funeral. She didn’t want to go, but I told her it was there or a shelter. On the flip side, I’ve been introduced by my teenaged nephew as “this is my aunt that I told you about–the one who supports all my activities.” If you have a chance to be an aunt, I 10/10 recommend it!
Could we have a week of outfits from Sydney? I feel confident she would deliver a five star post! Her effervescent energy shines through in these photos.
she is a STAR.
ugh. Don’t burden her with that crap at such a young age! She’s already going to attract a lot of pre-conceived attention just because she is stunningly gorgeous. Just let her be a kid for as long as she wants, without having to think about who likes what she’s wearing!!!
Cosign!
UMM she slept with curlers in her hair last night, hahaha
This is so lovely :,) I hope to be a neighborhood aunt one day.
This is the most special thing, thank you for sharing! My mom was never excited about clothes shopping, she say’s it because she had to spend her formative years in a maroon Catholic school uniform. But one of her friends and colleagues Nikki was the coolest, most stylish person teen me had ever encountered. When Nikki offered to take me back-to-school shopping my mom was happy to hand over some cash and send us off to the outlet mall. It felt like the most glamorous day and I still cherish it some 25 years later.
Yes! My second cousins fall in between myself and my parents in age and were these people for me. They were the ones to take me to get my ears pierced- I had my mom’s permission, of course, but she was too squeamish! They also advocated for me to be able to do more grown up things, like get my own phone line (hello, 90s!) I still cherish the memories I have doing “grown up” things with them.
I love this so much! My neighbor and friend Meg is the neighborhood Auntie–all the kids in our neighborhood crew call her “Mama Meg.” We love her dearly, and I’m so happy to have a safe and trusted adult for my four-and-a-half-year-old to rely on outside of me and her dad!
I had many, many of these figures in my life as a child because of the Boys and Girls Club!! 25 years later and I STILL having relationships with a few of the counselors. I can’t imagine a better place to spend time as a kid.
Yesss! Misty Copeland learned to dance ballet at the Boys and Girls Club <3
So many adults outside my family helped me to imagine what I could make my life look like as an adult and beyond the drama of my family ! It was so important that I was able to observe marriages that worked, and responsible steady men loving their wives and children!! I’m sure having me around was often a pain! I will be forever grateful that they seemed not just to tolerate me but to be rooting for me!
This is the position my godmothers held for me, and it was and remains so so nice to have non-family trusted elders.
I’m a proud neighborhood auntie to my friend’s 4 year old son. Just last week, he and his parents came to my house for dinner last week & his mom said she had a ton to do on Thursday; happily I offered to take her son to the beach for two hours to give her some time to get stuff done. These moments make me SO happy, as my husband and I don’t have kids yet. Would love to do this with a teenager someday.
Today is global strike day in efforts to protest the ongoing genocide by Israel on the Strip. They’re now bombing schools, hospital, U.N officials and butchering journalists. Joanna and readers, please join.
Thank you for this reminder, Farhana. More and more these days when I read about something peaceful, lovely and SANE, I have to catch my breath because of the juxtaposition – I feel like my anguish and rage are always dialed up as high as they go. As much as it feels sometimes disrespectful to me to take my mind off of the injustices, these stories of kindness and love remind me of what we are fighting for as much as we are fighting against. Sending you love and strength.
THANK YOU, Megan, for responding, for not skipping to the next happy comment, and for making the captives and the martyrs feel like they matter and are not forgotten. I post these comments with bated breath, thinking, will Jo post it this time? She does, and I say a little prayer for her. I personally know people whose entire family, all 33 of them. were massacred 1 by 1 by the Israeli Zionists. These systemic horror stories include aunies like Leah, whom they’ll never see again. Thank you for the love and strength- “They tried to bury us, they didn’t know we were seeds”.
I hear you. Just as Megan said – love and strength to you. And to our world. So much happening in every minute.