Uncle Paul!
My brother's wife had a little baby girl at 2AM today: Trina Elaine Britton. I'm an Uncle!!! Excitement abounds!!!
When I married Jenn, I became a de facto uncle to her niece and nephew. But that feels a lot different then actually being the uncle when the baby is born. I'll be a known entity from the very beginning, and I think that's kinda cool.
This raises a very interesting philosophical debate: what are the responsibilities of The Uncle? There are many types of Uncles. You have the Rich Uncle, the Crazy Uncle, the Fun Uncle, the Boring Uncle, the Quiet Uncle, the Dead-beat Uncle and on and on. I've always wanted to be the Fun Uncle. The Crazy Uncle would be an interesting role, but eventually, in order to be the Crazy Uncle, you have to teach your niece or nephew and important lesson on why it's not always good to be "crazy". And frankly, I don't like the ramifications of ending up in a Jamaican Jail over night. You might not always have as good of stories as the Crazy Uncle, but at least the kids are excited when you come around.
All along, I've held that the Fun Uncle has to be willing to buck authority, in this case, the Parents. That means you do things with the kids that the Parents disapprove of but won't get them into any real trouble. Basically, your goal is to annoy the Parents. That means, early on in the developmental stages, you're buying the kids toys that make a whole lotta noise. You drop the toy off, visit a while, show the kid how to use the toy and leave. What's more fun than that!?!? But Jenn steadfastly refuses to take part in any purchasing of noise making toys. There in lies the dilemma. I now have to completely alter my opinion of what a Fun Uncle does before the kid's old enough to attach things to the dog.
Right now, the only thing I can think of is always coming over cookies and making a huge mess with the kid's toys. The kid HAS to be allowed to have some cookies: they're from Uncle Paul! And leaving a mess in your wake is certainly amusing. The problem is that neither of those things has the lasting affect that a noisy toy has. You can't call on the phone the next day and hear the cacophony from the toy drum set in the background.
Obviously, I could not only help the kids buck authority, but buck authority myself and just get the darn noisy toys. That would get Jenn plenty mad. And remember, the goal is to be the Fun Uncle, NOT the Crazy Uncle.
For the time being, I'm just really excited to be just plain Uncle Paul. I've a few month before I have to start finalizing my plan...
When I married Jenn, I became a de facto uncle to her niece and nephew. But that feels a lot different then actually being the uncle when the baby is born. I'll be a known entity from the very beginning, and I think that's kinda cool.
This raises a very interesting philosophical debate: what are the responsibilities of The Uncle? There are many types of Uncles. You have the Rich Uncle, the Crazy Uncle, the Fun Uncle, the Boring Uncle, the Quiet Uncle, the Dead-beat Uncle and on and on. I've always wanted to be the Fun Uncle. The Crazy Uncle would be an interesting role, but eventually, in order to be the Crazy Uncle, you have to teach your niece or nephew and important lesson on why it's not always good to be "crazy". And frankly, I don't like the ramifications of ending up in a Jamaican Jail over night. You might not always have as good of stories as the Crazy Uncle, but at least the kids are excited when you come around.
All along, I've held that the Fun Uncle has to be willing to buck authority, in this case, the Parents. That means you do things with the kids that the Parents disapprove of but won't get them into any real trouble. Basically, your goal is to annoy the Parents. That means, early on in the developmental stages, you're buying the kids toys that make a whole lotta noise. You drop the toy off, visit a while, show the kid how to use the toy and leave. What's more fun than that!?!? But Jenn steadfastly refuses to take part in any purchasing of noise making toys. There in lies the dilemma. I now have to completely alter my opinion of what a Fun Uncle does before the kid's old enough to attach things to the dog.
Right now, the only thing I can think of is always coming over cookies and making a huge mess with the kid's toys. The kid HAS to be allowed to have some cookies: they're from Uncle Paul! And leaving a mess in your wake is certainly amusing. The problem is that neither of those things has the lasting affect that a noisy toy has. You can't call on the phone the next day and hear the cacophony from the toy drum set in the background.
Obviously, I could not only help the kids buck authority, but buck authority myself and just get the darn noisy toys. That would get Jenn plenty mad. And remember, the goal is to be the Fun Uncle, NOT the Crazy Uncle.
For the time being, I'm just really excited to be just plain Uncle Paul. I've a few month before I have to start finalizing my plan...
posted by RauluaP at 12:33 PM
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