Spiderman had his Aunt May. Harry Potter relunctantly was raised by Aunt Petunia. Dorothy yearned for her Auntie Em (can you just hear the Wicked Witch screaching Auntieeee Emmmmm in a mocking whine - sends shivers down my spine).
I'm watching a Lifetime movie, Saving Sarah Cain, about a newspaper columnist who becomes the legal guardian for her deceased sister's five Amish children. It reminds me of another Aunt-who-suddenly-becomes-Aunt Mommy movie, Raising Helen, about a woman who becomes the legal guardian for her deceased sister's three children. Sound familiar? This plot has been repeated countless number of times. In all, these aunts (hardly ever a single uncle) seem to be clueless characters in a Mission Impossible movie, trying to decide how to answer the question, your mission should you choose to accept it, although they act more like fish out of water, unsure. perhaps unaware of their unrealized dream of being a mother. Of course, once they realize this, then, magic of all magics, they get a man. God, I am tired of these movies.
So what has this post got to do with crochet? Nothing. It's just that I am a bit weary of stories about kids being given to an unqualified relative who has to be dragged kicking and screaming into a life-altering experience. There are so many flesh-and-blood women, and a few men no doubt, who have willingly opened their homes and hearts to their nieces and nephews for the simple reason that they are family and family takes care of family. No tricks, no guilt trips. And even though it may take a village to raise a child, it often is up to an aunt or grandmother or even an uncle to keep a family together. I just wish they would do movies about families who just happen to have an aunt with nieces and nephews and not make that relationship the premise for the plot.
