Titang Ina 101: Reasons Why Having Niece/Nephew is the Best Thing Ever

The greatest gift that a sibling can give is a niece or a nephew. And I can confirm that those who have nieces and nephews are lucky. We are lucky—I count myself among them—because the love felt for a niece or nephew knows no bounds and makes time spent with them enjoyable. In addition, you may experience what it’s like to be a parent even though you have no immediate plans to start a family.

Althea is my one and only niece, and she’s a lovely little girl of four. Being one of the first people to see her after she was born made me feel like the luckiest person in the world. At that moment, I felt an inexplicable surge of happiness and discovered a new, wider view of life. The sight of her face and the sound of her cries felt strange yet so familiar. And, as I watched her through the window of the nursery, I realized that having a niece or nephew is the best gift that a sibling can give. So, I have listed some of the reasons why having a niece or a nephew is the best thing ever! (Or even better than having your own kid)

5 Reasons why having niece/nephew is the best thing ever

Witnessing them learning new stuff like a proud parent

If you want to enjoy yourself or a fun pastime, teach your niece-nephew how to walk and speak. The room will definitely be full of laughter. But when they walked for the first time and when they said their first word that wasn’t “mama” or “papa,” you would be bursting with pride like a proud parent. It’s actually a great feeling witnessing them becoming their own person and seeing their personality on display.

You can go back to enjoying kid-friendly activities and definitely you will get no judgment

All aunts and uncles will definitely relate to this. You can spend quality time with your niece or nephew by doing kids’ activities that you also enjoy doing. Such as watching cartoons (and telling others that it’s your niece-nephew‘s favorite even though it’s actually yours), building with Legos or coloring books, or molding clay creations. It’s fine if your niece-nephew gets bored with it or doesn’t always enjoy it, as long as you are enjoying yourself.

Seriously, though, one of the greatest ways to de-stress is to hang out with your adorable nieces and nephews. It’s the best feeling in the world to see their face light up and hears their laughter as you two share some epic fail moments while playing together. They help us remember what it was like to be a kid.

You can be each other’s best friends or partners in mischief

Since you are not their parent, you will have the chance to establish a connection with them where they may trust you with their secrets and come to you for advice about matters that they feel uncomfortable discussing with their own parents. You can form the kind of trusting relationship like best friends or partners in mischief that lets them open up to you about everything and work together as a team. As their aunts and uncles, let’s be good friends to them and teach them what it means to be friends that trust each other.

But of course, teasing them to the point of tears or teaching them stuff that will make their parents go crazy and mad is also great fun.

You can blame basically everything on them

I have no doubt that some (if not all) uncles and aunts do this at least once. Whenever something minor goes wrong in your home, you have your niece-nephew to point the finger at. Lost keys? you blame your nephew or niece. If there’s no longer any food in the fridge, you say they ate it all when in reality, you did. We blame them most of the time. It’s a mission success if they can’t talk yet because how can they deny it?

You get to feel to have a kid, the difference is they are returnable

Have you ever heard the popular phrase that every aunt and uncle can relate to? It says, “why have a child when you have nieces and nephews? Plus they are returnable.”? You can do whatever you want with them, from dressing them up to spending all day with them. You can have all the fun like they’re your own kids. But, when they get annoying and intolerable, or when they sh!t their pants, it’s your day off now. Just return them back to their parents, as easy as that.

Being an aunt or uncle is not easy, but it’s one of the most amazing and fulfilling things we can do with our life. It’s also wonderfully funny how tiny babies can change our entire world even if they are not ours. So, if you’re blessed with a niece or nephew, you have something very special in your life. Spend as much time as possible with her while they are young.