Advantage of Uncle-ing

So I'm a pretty coolio uncle to have. I think my nephews and niece see me as pretty friggin cool-- but how could they not? It's pretty much a layup for me to be way cool as an uncle...

I always show up with a dog who is friendly and alot of fun. (That alone is way coolio). I usually have alot of energy to play games and stuff because hanging with kids happens unoften enough that's still a pretty fresh novelty. Also, I play video games probably better than any grownup they've met. Cool. I'm pretty relaxed reckless with my electronic gadgets. Wanna poke at my brand new phone with your boogered up fingers? That's ok. Go nuts. Just don't drop it. (I'll just dunk it in Purell before I put it near my face again). I can burp and stuff and it's funny. I can say fart all I want. Plus, it's rare that I have to actually discipline and be the bad guy-- so I guess they like that too.

I have a few other single friends who definitely appreciate the wide open terrain to be super cool with the nephews and nieces. But I gotta assume it's sometimes frustrating to parents to have a brother uncle or sister aunt come in and be all worshipped for being super awesome and coolio all day-- then watch them drive off just in time to avoid the tantrum about not wanting to go to bed. It must be all annoying like, 'You're worshipping that flunky Uncle or Aunt?! The house clown?! I'm the one who pays the bills around here, biatch?! You see a chicken nugget tree in our fkin yard?! Do the math on that and apply it to everything you own! And eat! And go to! See how many nuggets you get if you stay with your Uncle "Cool" for a couple weeks! Call me when you get tired of eating jam out of a jar and playing 'Operation Beer Fetch' all afternoon.

There is a flipside to being super cool uncles and aunts. Sometimes we go overboard to stay in the cool light. Like this weekend (maybe bad example), I was driving around with a nephew and niece. (Headed to Best Buy to get a new graphics card for their computer). And I had a GPS in the car to get me to and fro without ending up in Delaware. My nephew came up with an idea. He wanted to be the 'voice' for the GPS. He wanted to keep it in the backseat and tell me when to make turns and stuff. To be the GPS voice. Although I knew this was a very flawed plan (I couldn't hear the GPS back there.)... I wanted to be 'cool' and go with his idea. Needless to say two big wrong turns, one mumbled confession about losing control of the GPS, and twenty extra miles later-- I had an example of when 'being cool' overrode 'best instincts as an adult'. (I told you maybe bad example but tis most recent one).

But when all is said and done I do confess that it is pretty coolio to have the advantage of being so easily perceived as 'cool' by the young ones. (And I appreciate giving a break to the parents by soaking up some of the kid energy). I guess. Aunts and Uncles probably are looked at more like big kids than normal adults. Of course, I do understand that it's really just scratching the surface of appreciation for kids. Like getting dessert only. And that parents, get a world of other amazing things for their efforts that I could never really see and all that. Which I assume has a cool factor all its own.

But...

ok bye!

tOdd

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