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jazzfishAt this point I've reached a detente with my parents, and it works alright. It turns out that when I'm not forced to live with them, I kind of enjoy spending time & catching up. I can't really talk about writing with them, not yet, and there are plenty of other areas that we steer clear of, but, you know. There's a lot of good sailing to be had in calm waters. Not every relationship has to chart every dangerous reef.
To the left, I don't like my sister. I mean, I actively dislike her. Some of this is bad blood going back decades: her feeling betrayed that I wasn't the Big Brother that society had promised her and lashing out at me, me resenting that my parents just handed her things I worked hard to get. Some of it's bad blood that only goes back years: the last time we talked for more than five minutes it ended in a huge fight. More of it, now, is that she's just not someone I want anything to do with. She's a very angry person; most recently that anger's been directed at people who don't want the treason-in-defence-of-slavery flag flying over US government buildings.
The tricky part is the niephlings, my sister's kids. One niece, born 2004; one nephew, born 2009.
I have no problem with being the Cool Uncle but I'm not sure how one actually goes about that, especially from three thousand miles away. My default method would be "provide cool books" but my niece has some developmental problems: she's reading at about the level of my nephew, for instance. So... I really don't know.
Be happy to see them when I visit, try not to take my sister's issues out on them, and send cool Christmas presents, I guess.
To the left, I don't like my sister. I mean, I actively dislike her. Some of this is bad blood going back decades: her feeling betrayed that I wasn't the Big Brother that society had promised her and lashing out at me, me resenting that my parents just handed her things I worked hard to get. Some of it's bad blood that only goes back years: the last time we talked for more than five minutes it ended in a huge fight. More of it, now, is that she's just not someone I want anything to do with. She's a very angry person; most recently that anger's been directed at people who don't want the treason-in-defence-of-slavery flag flying over US government buildings.
ZUKO: I know what you're going to say. She's my sister, and I should be trying to get along with her.So there's that. I expect that this will make sorting out my parents' estate much more difficult than it might be otherwise, but since they're white-collar white folks with excellent medical care that's likely decades away.
IROH: No! She's crazy, and she needs to go down.
The tricky part is the niephlings, my sister's kids. One niece, born 2004; one nephew, born 2009.
I have no problem with being the Cool Uncle but I'm not sure how one actually goes about that, especially from three thousand miles away. My default method would be "provide cool books" but my niece has some developmental problems: she's reading at about the level of my nephew, for instance. So... I really don't know.
Be happy to see them when I visit, try not to take my sister's issues out on them, and send cool Christmas presents, I guess.
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Date: 2015-07-13 01:46 am (UTC)(ETA- In random thoughts, cool uncledom probably changes in the digital age, and for recommending media it helps if you've got a fairly good handle on the kinds of the things the kids like. Being the kind of grownup who listens & treats kids like they're people goes a long way, even if you only do it occasionally. So far the Megatherium is pretty skeptical about her uncle, but at the moment she's not so sure about any adult males besides her father.)
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Date: 2015-07-17 05:48 am (UTC)I seem to be defaulting to cool-uncle status, for reasons that are entirely opaque to me. They both apparently get excited about getting to see me and want to talk to me (or at least have me pay attention to them). It's... weird.
mmm, books...
Date: 2015-08-05 01:53 am (UTC)Denys Cazet's Minnie and Moo books about the madcap adventures of a pair of cows. Lots of genre cameos (titles include "Wanted, Dead of Alive", "Night of the Living Bed", "The Musk of Zorro"...) and silliness. There are also a few spin-offs about Elvis the Rooster, though we haven't tried those yet. Probably worth it to hit up your library for the whole set & spend a few hours picking out which ones you like best.
Princess Pink & the Land of Fake-Believe. (Noah Z Jones, so far there are only two) Excessively fractured fairytales featuring an aggressively non-girly girl who got stuck named Princess b/c she has 8 older brothers, and her adventures in a land reached through the inside of her refrigerator. Fun, perky art, with brown-skinned protag, but they retain all the morally problematic elements of the original stories.
The Mister Putter & Tabby books by Cynthia Rylant are lovely. Little domestic adventures about an old man & his old cat, and usually their potty & energetic old neighbor Mrs Teaberry and her "good" dog Zeke. Again, there are twenty or thirty of these by now, so order up a bunch and see what appeals. (Cynthia Rylant also has some books aimed at the earlier side of easy reader)
Maybe not yet if the kids have to do their own reading, but Ben Hatke's Zita the Spacegirl comics are lovely, and the Megatherium actually sat still for whole volumes at a stretch.
Oh, and there are level 2 Magic Schoolbus books now, which retain the charm & informative nature of the long ones, sized for a shorter attention span.
We also quite liked Ottoline and the Yellow Cat; it's pretty complex (I think stickered as grade 3?) but with a super high picture ratio and... well, you would probably enjoy it, & then draw your own conclusions? (We only read it once, but M was much taken with it & talked about it for some time after.)