Wholesome
I grew up with a lot of pseudo family. I did not have a present father and my mom worked full time. My family is pretty big and all of our family friends attend get togethers, holidays, birthday party, etc. Most of my "aunts" are family friends I've known my whole life who really are like family to me. With that being said, I know how important it is to have someone in your life who is "family" when yours might not be the best.
My wife has a friend with a teenage daughter and he works full time. Her mom isn't in the picture and the woman he'd been dating who was sort of a step mom to her isn't in the picture anymore either. As it sometimes is with dads, their relationship isn't the best either. Shes a really good kid and I really related to her fact that her family is a little unstable. So when our friend came to us asking if one of us could take her to school some times, I didn't hesitate in saying I could do it.
It became our routine that once a week i'd pick her up, take her to get coffee and drop her off at school. We talk about her classes, her friends, etc. And then she started asking me for advice and about crushes and to dye her hair for the summer. She is figuring out her sexuality and having a lesbian influence in her life I think has really made a difference as her dad is lowkey homophobic. We both refer to me as her aunt. I don't plan on having my own kids so I joke that she's my pseudo kid. The other day I told her that maybe I can't be her mom, but I can be her fun aunt--she said "maybe a little bit of both?"
We recently had a heart to heart where I talked about my own family and especially my dad. She confided in me about a lot of stuff and told me she didn't realize that she could talk to me about her feelings about her family in this way. I told her I was always an ear for her. As a kid, talking to a neutral third party was a life line for me and I wanted to extend her the same. I'm friendly with her dad but he was definitely more of my wife's friend.
Anyways, I've been taking her to school for a few months now. It went from once a week to Tuesday-Friday. This morning as I was dropping her off, she was grabbing her things and coffee and I told her to have a good day at camp and I'd see her tomorrow. She replied "I love you, bye!" She got red faced and said "oh wait...sorry...well, actually yes, love you bye".
I had to keep it together but I almost lost it! I don't plan on having kids, I don't know how well i'd do with the whole child rearing thing and passing on all my genetic disasters. But hey, I'll take my pseudo kid. Love ya too kiddo.
