I am the uncle of eight nieces and nephews that I know about. All but one of them are adults now, the other one is a teenager.
As my nieces and nephews were growing up I didn't get to see them very often. My family is scattered across the United States and now even across the planet. But when I was younger my nieces and nephews lived in different states most of the time. The youngest one has lived in my state for a number of years but lives about two hours away from me.
So as an uncle I haven't really gotten to know my nieces and nephews. Busy with my career and raising my own children I didn't get to spend hardly any time with nieces and nephews. When we would go and visit their parents the visit usually focused on adults with adults and our children with their children. And because we lived so far away that did not happen very often.
My wife has kept up with them pretty well but same as me has not seen them very often. But I'm not talking about her right now.
As an uncle I feel like my role has been maligned by entertainment media. The weird uncle, the crazy uncle the drunkard dope smoking uncle that is in and out of jail. The uncle that stays hidden and nobody knows because nobody really wants to be around them. That's what an uncle is as far as I have seen presented in the media.
When I was growing up we moved out into the woods and lived in a house that my parents had built when my father retired from the military. The house was on property next to my grandparents property. But because of the relationship and life in general I did not get to see my grandparents very often. Usually just on holidays and the occasional special occasion. But not very often.
My father had lots of uncles. He had about seven uncles and one aunt. And that was just on his father's side of the family on his mother's side of the family he had to uncles that I know about. One of those uncles lived just up the road from where our house was and we rode by his family's house daily whenever I would go to school or whenever we would go into town.
I didn't really get to see my great uncles. We would ride by their house and look and see what might have changed but other than that didn't really stop. They were different and strange and in and out of trouble. The uncle was fine but his children were not.
And so I grew up seeing my dad drive by his uncles house daily and never knew him to stop and say hello or hang out or whatever. We would make the occasional trip into town to visit one of the other uncles. But it just wasn't a regular part of our time there.
Now that most of my nieces and nephews are adults we've made some efforts to go and see them. We traveled out to the middle of the country to visit two nieces and that was a very pleasant experience. We reached out to others but have gotten very little response. On a recent trip to Israel we made it clear what were doing and or niece that is living in Israel made the effort to come and see us while we were there which was awesome! Her and her husband are living in Israel for a couple of years and it was great to see them over there.
My youngest nephew is one that I have not seen very often. At some point I realized that I had seen him fewer times than the number of years he had been alive and that made me sad. I racked my brain trying to figure out a way that I could let him get to know me and my family a little bit more than the occasional holiday or special event time together where his face was glued to a screen of some kind. And I came up with an idea that I continue to this day.
I started sending on postcards. I would share a painting that my wife had done, I would share a picture of my wife and I at something we were doing. When we go on trips I try to send him a postcard of what we are seeing or doing. I use an app called TouchNote to send the postcards so that they are very personal and not store-bought and very easy to do: going from place to place.
I enjoy sending the postcards to him so much that I started sending postcards to some of the others. Not all the time, not very often, but just enough to let them know that they have an aunt and uncle that care for them that doesn't get to see them very often and that we are thinking about them.
I hope that my efforts have some sort of impact. Not necessarily with me but just with them reaching out to those that they care for and letting them know that they care. Pass it on and all.
You can learn more about the TouchNote app at https://touchnote.onelink.me/F720/7iapvmdf
