Hey mate, thanks for your first paragraph. This is not something I talk about much and even here I have left so many details out, but the main theme of it is there I guess.
As an uncle I'm lucky to be able to lean more towards the fun aspect of kids, and yep they're going to get away with with me than with their parents, but it's also my role to help prepare them for their futures and I do so in many little ways. Will I discipline them? Of course. But fortunately they're good kids, raised well by their parents and there's little need for that. I hope to impart some valuable lessons and concepts to them, to be someone they turn to when they need and someone they look back on fondly as you do with your uncle.
I'm looking forward to seeing them grow up and I know I'll be proud of them, as I am now.