Worked okay for me when I was 3.
you must be an uncle from the other side of the family.
Yes, there are the times they drive you crazy, but they’re only little for a short time, then they become sullen teenagers.
I’ll take the bottomless-pit-of-hugs-and-sticky-kisses little kids any day. They make me happy.
I hated most little kids when I was a little kid, what’s your problem?
Oh, no. I love when my nephews get presents. Christmas was a blast, since they know well enough that Uncle Lightray is the one to come to for putting together new toys without freaking out. And they’re deleriously happy over the simplest things – 6yo Number One Nephew was shouting “awesome!” every time I got part of his Thomas the Train monstrosity assembled, and 3yo Number Two Nephew picked up on it and every time he tried his stomp-rocket he’d pipe out “Awethome!” and run over to hug me.
Meanwhile, my mom is evaluating the meaning of every present and its worth in evaluating your love for her… while she, in turn, gives presents with no regard to what the recipient might want. Kids, I love buying presents for. Adults? entitled bastards can go buy their own stuff for all I care; I’m getting them gift cards, and under protest at that.
Other than my nephews (and my niece, once she’s past the drooling blob stage), I’ll avoid kids, thank you very much. My brother has kindly excused me from kiddiewrangling duty at their b-day and Easter madhouses – much to my mother’s horror, I just show up for the family portion and the traditional assembling-of-the-gifts.
That was me, too - I wanted to hang out with the adults. Now that I am an adult, I still want to hang out with the adults.
After reading this sentence, I am left to wonder how you posted close to 2000 times on this message board with your eyes closed. These threads pop up every couple of months, it seems.
I like them. Minions are best when recruited young.
I woke up early because my roommate’s Minion came into my bedroom. Mommy was still asleep and wouldn’t wake up. I decided to let her sleep a bit more and taught him (3 yo) how to play the opening line to Beethoven’s 9th on his little xylophone. (The famous Ode to Joy, 4th movement… We cheated, we counted it out, but it still sounded good.) He got it, though. Only took about fifteen minutes. Their minds are like sponges at that age. When mommy woke up and was unimpressed, we moved over to breakfast.
Now don’t get me wrong…These folks were friends, and helped me out when I was in a bad way, but they were… dirty. One of the worst things IMO was that they would let all of their 3 cats walk nap play sleep whatever on the kitchen counters, the cooking island, and almost any flat surface to include the dining room table. Ick.
Minion would always spill things, as they are oft to do. Mother was usually away from the room, as she wanted him to learn how to pour and drink on his own. (Yeah, she thought he was ‘gifted’ so he could do it without training. Go fig.) Every time he would spill something, I taught him to say “kitty”. Not loud, but not specifically his indoor voice. Invariably one of the cats would jump up on the surface he spilled upon because it thought he was giving them a treat. (Yeah, I think cats are stupid too, but I manipulated them as well. I think I was teaching them the ‘SPILL=free meal’ message. Enjoy your place on the food chain.)
By the time Mother got into the room, she usually assumed the cats were interfering with the kid’s ability to practice his skills. So the cats became the victims. Minion picked up on this quickly, and every time something went wrong, you would hear a small crash followed by 3-4 seconds of silence. Then, “kitty”.
By the time I moved out I don’t think Mother ever caught on. 
Ditto.
My beautiful, brilliant six-month-old niece gave me a cold this weekend. Some of the shine has worn off that princess.
Uncle Brother Walker, you are the only person (other than my husband and myself) that I’ve heard call them “minions”. How cool!
And it’s ALWAYS good to have minions, isn’t it?
We also called him “chore monkey” but he got tired of that real quick.
I love the word ‘minions’. I shall steal it and use it for my own.
My son heard me tell my husband to ‘suck it, honey’ yesterday. (I meant it lovingly, and I didn’t realize he was within earshot.).
So last night, I was informed that he told my mother to ‘suck it, Yia-Yia!’.
We have decided we have REALLY got to start watching our mouths, or we will be the parents who get the call from school that starts “DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOUR SON SAID?”. :smack:
You really need to try the vinegar based BBQ sauce. That makes all the difference.