Back in March I briefly offered a shout out to a site that I heard was in development entitled Savvy Auntie. The particular post was on the book The Panic Years: A Guide to Surviving Smug Married Friends, Bad Taffeta, and Life on the Wrong Side of 25 without a Ring by Doree Lewak. The book and the elongated title explains, touches on relationships with your friends who are married (while you are not) as well as those who have kids. I remember thinking in Stern after my first close friend Alissa got married, wow looks like shes winning in this race called life. Then a year later her first son was born and I thought, damn, not only is she winning, she's lapped me. That was in 2001. She just delivered her THIRD child b"H in May, one week after I got engaged to my fiance Evan. So I guess I may have gained ground in this race, although, it'll be years (if ever) for me to catch up to her and her bountiful fam.
For a long time I just accepted the fact that there was a good chance I'd be an old maid. Its widely believed that there is a "singles crisis" (their words, not mine) in the young frum world. So anyone who doesn't fit into the teeny tiny box of whats an ideal man or woman in the frum world just might be single for a while. For a woman, you can generally read that as thin, because thats pretty much all frum guys are looking for. Although, not always true, I have some incredibly hot, professional friends who remain single (gentlemen, contact me for their numbers). Guys in the frum world are just generally stupid, so thats why they let these lovely ladies slip through their fingers. For men, they must have a six figure salary. Bald, fat, and toothless are not factors. Those guys still have no problem finding wives. As long as they take home 100K.
Since there are so many women getting married later and later in life, many are putting off having children. That doesn't neccesarily mean that they aren't actively involved in childrens' lives. A large majority of my girlfriends have extremely close connections to their nieces and nephews. They take them to the circus (as my bud DJ did last week), they act as confidants, and they get to be another adult that loves the children unconditionally and spoils them rotten. Every kid needs more than two adults to fill that last role. When I was little, I needed like 20 aunts and uncles to yield the amount of attention my precoious younger self required.
Right now SavvyAuntie.com is being launched like literally as I type this blog. This website can act as an online community (the first of its kind) for hip aunts, great aunts, godmothers, and my own personal coined term quasi-aunts, to communicate with one another on all the important things it means to be an aunt. Biological or not. For instance, two weeks ago I went to my quasi-niece's first birthday. Being a woman in my late 20's with pretty much no experience around little ones (I've changed like 5 diapers in my 28 years) I had no idea what to get her for a gift. Had I had this community to turn to for advice, I would have had a much easier time of gift buying. I would have known a Playstation wasn't a good idea (just kidding, I found like some ball thingy, for ages 1-3).
All that said, yes, I plan to, God willing, one day have a family. Not neccesarily anytime so soon. I'd like to enjoy married life for a little while before popping out a little one. For now, I'm content doting over my two nephews who live in Las Vegas (when I see them, which is usually once a year if that) and my brand new nephew (Evan's brother's son), as well as my countless other quasi-nieces and nephews, children of my close friends. They're awesome little tykes. And I'm their Aunt Susanne! If you fit this category, visit SavvyAuntie.com today!
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