Be a Great Aunt or Uncle for Your Nephews and Nieces

Good morning, Live Better than a Billionaire-a-Holics!

Are you feeling motivated this morning?
I certainly hope so. I know that I am!

When I was growing up, I used to love to visit my aunts and uncles. They seemed so much more interesting than my own parents. While there, I was a sponge, picking up on things that my aunts and uncles knew about that I didn't.

In particular, one of my uncles seemed quite reserved and cerebral. I was always wondering what he was thinking. He read widely and knew about good health practices more than fifty years ago that are finally being used today. He shied away from spending time with his nieces and nephews. On one particularly noisy afternoon, he asked me if I would like to go to the movies with him. I was surprised and delighted. We saw Frank Capra's Philadelphia Story and I thought the movie was wonderful. From that time on, I felt very close to this uncle even though we seldom saw one another and didn't have much to say to one another. But there was a warmth there that just kept building.

Many years later, I took one of my nephews to play golf at a beautiful course on the Pacific Ocean. While we were scaling various hills and crossing various dales, he casually mentioned a severe personal problem that he was having. This was the first I had heard of the problem. I told him he should do something about the problem. He was surprised that I hadn't known about what was going on . . . and I assured him that I hadn't known or I would have done something to help him. We discussed his choices, and he chose one. Within a day, the problem was mostly solved.

From those two examples, I received powerful insights into the unusual and helpful roles that uncles and aunts can play in their nieces and nephews lives.

Let me share a few of those perspectives and encourage you to add your own:

1. Spend time alone with each of your nephews and nieces at least once a year. Ideally, find an activity that you both like . . . but if that's not possible just go for a nice long walk on a beautiful day.

2. Facilitate an interest of your nieces and nephews that they have difficulty pursuing, but of which their parents approve. My younger daughter was enormously encouraged in her career interests by receiving a ticket to the Daytime Emmy Awards a few years ago from her aunt and uncle. My wife and I would never have thought to do this.

3. Take one of your nephews and nieces on vacation with you. I suggest taking only one at a time because that makes the experience more special. You can tailor what you do as a family to their interests. When I was a teenager, my Dad had a free railroad pass and I could ride by myself to Illinois from California and spend time with my aunts and uncles there. It was a ball! On one of these trips, I was first introduced to playing golf . . . and I was hooked!

4. Watch out for special needs of each niece and nephew and pass that information along to his or her parents and grandparents. Think of this as being like an advisor to those who spend more time with each youngster. You will spot issues and opportunities that others will miss, and you can play a pivotal role in getting help for your nephews and nieces.

5. Encourage your children to help their cousins in constructive ways. With instant messaging, cell phones and other ways to always be in touch, cousins who live far apart can have quite close relations. Cousins often rely on cousins in ways that they don't rely on siblings. But your children don't have much experience in such relationships. Help your children to make good choices about how to help.

6. Attend your nieces' and nephews' special events. Your being there will mean a lot to them. For the rest of their lives, they will see your image in all of those photographs that are taken at such events.

7. Do a little research to help your nephews and nieces. Look into what they want to do and find out things to help them that they won't know to check out. Perhaps a nephew wants to be a professional baseball player. He may not know that he can arrange to shadow a player for a day during the off season. By passing along how to arrange such an experience, you will open vast doors of opportunity.

8. Find interests that you have in common. With the large age gap, these interests may not be obvious. The best thing to do is to share what you love with your nieces and nephews . . . and see how they respond.

Can a billionaire do better? I doubt it.

Can you see Donald Trump taking off a day a year for each of his nieces and nephews? I suspect he'd have trouble finding the time.

And you can't hire people to be surrogate uncles or aunts for you. You pretty much have to do this yourself.

The weight of responsibilities and possessions will deter many a billionaire from playing the greatest possible role in her or his nephews and nieces lives.

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N.B. As you can tell, I'm experimenting with color. Let me know what you like and what I should change about my use of color. Many thanks to Linda Grace for her suggestions which I am following!

Please let me know what else you would like to learn, and I'll do my best to help in future blog entries.

Here are some upcoming subjects:

Tomorrow, let's consider great ways to enjoy breakfast better than a billionaire.

On Thursday, we'll visit the mall to see how to outdo a billionaire.

Friday, I'll pay homage to my friend and mentor, Peter Drucker, who died recently.

On Saturday, let's head to Pro Player Stadium for a close look at how to enjoy football South Florida style!

Sunday, let's consider how best to expand your spiritual library and readings.

If you are new to this blog, be sure to check out the updated table of contents entry that I posted on November 9. The table of contents will help you find earlier entries that may be of interest. I'll update this table of contents every week or so for your convenience.

August 31 was the most frequently read blog entry to date. Be sure to check it out!

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Live Spiritually Better than a Billionaire at http://livespirituallybetterthanabillionaire.blogspot.com/,

Be More Successful than a Billionaire at http://bemoresuccessfulthanabillionaire.blogspot.com/,

Create Your Own 2,000 Percent Solutions at
http://2000percentsolutions.blogspot.com/,

Enjoy Mansions Better than a Billionaire at http://enjoymansionsbetterthanabillionaire.blogspot.com/,

Enjoy Football Better than a Billionaire at http://enjoyfootballbetterthanabillionaire.blogspot.com/ and

Be a World Hero Better than a Billionaire at http://beaworldherobetterthanabillionaire.blogspot.com/.

I offer individual on-line tutorials and in-person seminars on living better than a billionaire on five dollars extra a day, creating 2,000 percent solutions (20 times the results with the same effort), developing more profitable business models and designing strategies that work regardless of the business environment. For information, contact me at ultimatecompetitiveadvantage@yahoo.com.

I am available to you as a speaker on these subjects. You can find my background at http://livebetterthanabillionaireon5dollars.blogspot.com/2005_08_30_livebetterthanabillionaireon5dollars_archive.html/.

May God bless you.

Donald W. Mitchell, Your Dream Concierge

Copyright 2005 Donald W. Mitchell