I'm too far away from my nephews to be involved with them. If they were closer I'd surely play cool uncle. There's being cool uncle, and too-much-time-on-his-hands uncle. My favorite uncles were already fathers with their own family, not the single bachelor types with dirty apartments like I am now. ULTIMATELY I don't see the point in parenting-by-proxy. I'm living the benefits of being childless, but if you're an active committed caring person I don't see much reasons to NOT be your own parent either. Its like NUT UP, stop being a b***h, why not just get your own and stay out of other people's s*** (Its not like some parents don't bend the nuptial rules anyway, getting their kids and their "liberties" .... )
What does that mean? Sounds like you are their friend. When a kid trusts a Friend more than a parent their is an issue. Normally it means you get to have fun with them and be kewl with them but never discipline or chastise them when it is necessary. I seen too many Kool Parents to like the Kool Uncle concept. Rocket River
Being the cool uncle grows old and by the time you become a teenager, he becomes the lame, lonely, attention seeking uncle who has no friends of his own and wants to hang out with you uncle.
i got news for you RR, 99.99% of kids care more about what their friends think than their parents. does that make the parents horrible or the child a problem? of course, i'm a friend to them but i also set boundaries. they can act silly all they want when we are home, but i keep them in line when out in public. they know i wont' put up with their attitudes so are more inclined to listen to me. but when they talk, i listen also and try to give real feedback. i don't mean to sound like they don't trust their parents, i think they just prefer someone who has more to say than, "oh, it's ok, it'll be alright."
that sounds like what happens to parents. i guess i can't have a social life, a girlfriend, travel or make new friends because i spend a day per week with them.
Link? I doubt that. Generally speaking it is easy to like someone who does not have the will or authority to punish you for your wrong doings. Someone who is not correcting you. In some cases a co-conspirator in other simply a keeper of the secrets. I would find it very disheartening that another adult was keeping stuff about my child from me . . .family or not If that were to happen and be the case. . . generally speaking they need not be around me or my kid Rocket River Either help . . or be out. Keeping stuff from a parent . . isnt helping .
jeez RR, you're reading way too much into this. i don't undermine their parents' authority in any way. i don't keep any secrets because there's nothing to keep. i share my experiences with them as much as i can and try to relate how things were when i was there age. i help the parents out by taking the kids out for the day. if you can't appreciate that as parent, i don't know what to say.
Well will you be our cool uncle and tell the story? Kids need to have strong relationships with other adults in their life besides their parents: family, neighbors, co-workers, friends... wherever. Yesterday was my 11-YO daughter's birthday party. We were heading out to The Ice House for an ice-skating party. We had a 9-YO neighbor girl in the car with us as well as my other 9-YO daughter. My birthday daughter was re-telling the story from last year when we took a church youth group skating for an outing. We had arranged for a brief group lesson before the session started. The group instructor came across as gay-- blame GLEE. My daughters are both big fans of GLEE and all my daughter was saying was that the guy talked like the gay character on GLEE. That chat went on for a moment or two when the neighbor girl piped up and said "I have a hard time talking to my parents about gay people and stuff...."
