Undervalued Women In America: Childless Aunts
My aunt always wanted to be a mom ever since I could remember. She’s spent so much time with me while I was growing up and she would buy me presents, she would take me out and play with me all day.
In reality I couldn’t wish for a better aunt. But unfortunately, she wasn’t able to conceive a child herself. She was trying her best to hide her pain but it was hurting her very deeply
One day I heard my mom say to me that it is easy for my aunt to be good to me and play with me when she’s not stuck changing diapers all the time, but my aunt had already changed her share of diapers when she was taking care of me when I was a baby, so I felt that her comment was rude and inconsiderate.
- “You’ll never know what a true love is until you have your own child” is what people would often say to her without even thinking the meaning of their word or how they would hurt her. Especially since I knew she knew love. She loved me as her own child and yet still, society judged her and diminished her value only on the sole fact that she didn’t have children on her own.
- Why’s this happening? Why is motherhood considered to be the only source of happiness when in fact, one study on the relation of happiness found that US parents are the least happy relative to non-parents, moreover many studies found that childless aunts have actually made the families happier.
- The children were happy and the parents were when Aunt was welcomed into the family. When parents get overwhelmed with parenthood, they feel drained with so many other factors and the pressure starts setting in, aunts are there to support and take care of the children.
They enrich the children’s lives in a meaningful way, and not only they are secondary caregivers, but also with their material gifts they provide finical and emotional support. Not to mention the positive influence they have on the children while spending positive time with them.
I would definitely say that aunts play a primary role in the family, so we should all take time to celebrate aunts as our secondary mothers.
