The TV Addict 

When you’re an Uncle to a niece and/or nephew rapidly growing up into teenagers one of the worries that emerges is about whether you’ll manage to remain close – even relevant – to kids quickly developing settled personalities and different interests. Even when you’re as young an Uncle as I am (twenty-six a week from Friday) who has always been around my niece and nephew (now eleven and fifteen respectively) since they were little babies, and has always been close to them, you still do fret about being unable to relate to them or their world as they get older.

As they continue to prove to me it’s an entirely unmerited concern, it nevertheless eases my mind that one of the many things that repeatedly enriches my already healthy and loving bond with my eleven year old niece, Ainsleigh, is our mutual appreciation for Disney’s HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL series. We’ve seen the films several times together. We sing the songs (her lyrical grasp is stronger than mine), giggle about our crushes on Zach Efron and Vanessa Hudgens (her crush is stronger than mine), discuss the musical numbers, characters, dance moves, and Sharpay moments. We agree the second film is the best (though it took some convincing on her part). We once set out to see if I could hit the high notes Efron does on “Work This Out.” I couldn’t. I also couldn’t do the dance.

What HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL and our shared love for it made me realize is that it doesn’t matter if I’m relevant to my niece and her interests, but rather that I have something we care about and can share together. It’s a cheery on top of an already mighty Uncle/Niece sundae.

That’s why after hearing often about how she was the only person she knew (well, non-adult person) who hadn’t seen either Disney’s CAMP ROCK or HANNAH MONTANA AND MILEY CYRUS: BEST OF BOTH WORLDS CONCERT, I proposed with the DVDs coming out that we both sit down watch them together, and then review them (those will be posted later this afternoon).

It yielded the same results. Not only did it give me the opportunity to spend some much needed time in the pleasure of her company, but to once again experience something for the first time with her. If life is nothing but a culmination of experiences, there’s no doubt that sharing new ones with someone you love is always a treat. We got to see something new at the same time, and share our thoughts, praises, complaints, and find ourselves mostly agreeing on what we had just seen.

Sure, maybe all we’re harping on are “just” movies, but it’s more than enough – as probably any parent, sibling, or other form of close relative knows.

Check back later today for both our thoughts on CAMP ROCK and HANNAH MONTANA AND MILEY CYRUS: BEST OF BOTH WORLDS CONCERT.