Why children love a Pank (professional aunt, no kids): Growing number of women showering nieces and nephews with expensive gifts

Panks smother their nieces and nephews with love and advice

They also buy them the latest and expensive must-have toys

Celebrity Panks include Cameron Diaz and Jennifer Aniston



If you are going to get ahead in life, it seems every little girl and little boy needs a Pank in their life.

A Pank will smother them with love and advice and buy them the very latest and expensive must-have toys which will ensure their ongoing popularity with their friends.

Sociologists, always on the lookout for a new acronym, have coined a fresh one - Pank - a professional aunt, no kids.

Doting: Panks smother their nieces and nephews with love and advice and buy them the very latest and expensive must-have toys

And among the notable Panks smothering their nieces and nephews with love and enviable gifts is actress, Cameron Diaz.

Diaz, who has no children, was present at the birth of all her three nieces and admits she spoils them rotten.

The 41-year-old actress says: ‘Whatever they want, they get. I cannot resist. But being an aunt is the most important role in my life.’

Jennifer Aniston, 44, who is merely a godmother to Coco Arquette, the daughter of her Friends’ co-star Courtney Cox, says that although she doesn’t have children herself she too dotes ‘like a mother, or at least an aunt’ with the eight-year-old.

'I cannot resist': Cameron Diaz, who has no children, admits she spoils her three nieces rotten

She said of the little girl who calls her Nuna: ‘She is very precious to me and we share confidences.’

The stars are the latest to acknowledge the power of the professional, childless aunt who has surplus love and money to lavish on their pampered niblings.

The image of the doting, slightly dotty aunt has been a British stereotype since the Victorian age,



But today Panks are anything but dotty or eccentric and are likely to be working in well-paid top level jobs.

A nd they are becoming more and more visible in the sociological make-up of the British family because more women are choosing to focus on their professional careers and put off having children until later.

Jane Pilcher, a sociology lecturer at the University of Leicester, told the Sunday Times: ‘Those who have put off having children might give expression to their nurturing side through the children of their siblings.

‘And they might be glad to spend surplus money on them.’ she added.

Last week research by Euromonitor, a global marketing research firm, suggested American Panks were spoiling their nieces and nephews to the tune of £6bn a year.

And with more and more women choosing to concentrate on their careers in the UK - Britons not far behind.



For every Pank there is also a Punk - professional uncle, no children - and actor Jake Gyllenhaal, 32, is the perfect example.

The actor says some of his best evenings are spent babysitting his sister Maggie’s, children.



Motherly: Jennifer Aniston, 44, dotes on goddaughter Coco Arquette, right, who is the daughter of Courtney Cox



He said: ‘Ramona and Gloria Ray are the cure for the Hollywood day.’

Though he admitted he has yet to become an expert in choosing presents for the two youngsters.

Melanie Notkin, 44, a marketing consultant, founded the website SavvyAuntie with the idea of fixing just such a problem.

She said: ‘People imagine us knitting or eating food out of a can while watching TV, but really these days we are more like the cool aunt who exposes a child to cultural experiences that their parents might not have the time and money for.’



She said around three out of every four Panks spent around £300 a year on their nephews and nieces and the sum is rising.

Babysitter: Jake Gyllenhaal, pictured with his sister Maggie, is the perfect example of a Punk - professional uncle, no children

The Office for National Statistics this year published figures showing that one in five British women is childless at 45.

The figure compares with one in eight childless women among what could be described as their mothers’ generation – those born on the eve of the Second World War in 1939.