‘I’m 27 but I can be 13 in 5 minutes’: Aunt saves her teenage niece from bullies when she goes undercover at the bus stop

There are a few essential rules to aunt-hood, but one trumps all others — at all costs, protect the nibblets.

Particularly those of us who plan to be lifers — aka we won’t be having any children of our own — those little kiddos are our surrogate children, but our status comes with perks, one of which was outlined in a recent TikTok. We get the easy job — we’re not the disciplinarians, we don’t have to make them eat healthy, be productive members of society, or clean their rooms. We just have to show them a good time, and — when the situation calls for it — teach them vital life lessons.

Lessons like what you do to a bully when they cross you. That’s an auntie lesson if I ever heard one, and I’m in full support of TikToker @lifesize.lemonade’s approach. The content creator is channeling her high school days in order to support her niece, and there’s no beating her means of problem-solving.

It seems, based on a brief six-second TikTok, that @lifesize.lemonade’s high school-aged niece has been having some issues with the kids at school. A text overlay explains that the TikToker’s niece was worried over “some girls” who were “planning on jumping her at the bus stop,” but that’s exactly what aunties are for. So what did @lifesize.lemonade do? She tied her hair back, pieced together a nice youthful outfit, strapped on a backpack, and went undercover as a high schooler.

Presumably those girls are in for the surprise of their lives when they realize a grown woman, powered by maternal instincts and post-election rage, is accompanying their target to her planned bullying. That’s a life lesson well learned, if you ask me.

Millennials like myself are increasingly deciding against having kids of our own, which makes those nibbling relationships all the more important. Its not that we don’t want a little one to cherish, help shape, and watch grow, it’s that we can’t fathom affording it. Kids deserve good, comfortable lives, and if we can’t provide it, many would-be parents are choosing adjacent parenthood instead, to ensure the kids that are important to us have the best lives possible.

As the economy gets worse, the political arena becomes a toxic cesspool, and climate change disasters become an everyday occurance, its little wonder the birth rate is plummeting. Across the globe, young people are having fewer children or no children at all — to the point that our populations are set to decline. U.S. census data indicates that birth rates in the nation are at the lowest since 1960, and a bulk of other nations — including South Korea, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Italy — are likewise seeing numbers plummet.

There are a myriad of factors contributing to this, and with Donald Trump’s victory in the 2024 election, its not likely to get better — at least stateside. Women are ditching the idea of kids when faced with the grim possibility of Project 2025, and with our numbers already on the decline, that could paint a worrying picture for the future of our population.

But at least we have a surplus of aunties, both by blood and by choice, who — childless though they may be — are more than willing to step up where needed. Whether it be a night of babysitting, a trip to the park, or some help with a bully, the world’s aunts are ready and waiting to be the bonus parents our dwindling kids need.