It’s pretty busy when you’ve just had your third baby – particularly when the world’s looking at you. So it’s possible that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge haven’t had much time to think about the awesomeness that is uncle/aunt-niece/nephew relationships.

But now that William and Kate have met their new nephew baby Archie, son of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, they will surely be thinking about this exact thing. Because these relationships really are awesome. 

I’ve got nine years of uncling under my belt. In fact, if I add up the ages of all my niblings – a word I saw on the internet that supposedly groups all your nieces and nephews together – I’ve been an uncle for something like 26 years. And it’s great! So much easier than being a parent! (I know, I have a nearly two-year-old daughter). Here’s why.  

 [Read More: Everything that happened in baby Archie’s first week]

1. Oh, it’s easy.

There are no expectations. The only way to be a bad uncle is to be actively bad – if you just don’t do anything, nobody really cares. Children’s lives can be affected by parental neglect, but uncle neglect? Not a thing. 

2. You can just give ’em back. 

Uncling is the no-strings-attached version of parenting, where you can have loads of fun and then just… go. You can bounce on a trampoline with your nephews, having the biggest laugh in the world – and then when one of them throws up, just send them back to their parents covered in sick. 

3. You can break the rules, a little. 

Discipline and authority are important in parenting, but less so when you’re an uncle. In fact, breaking the rules will just make your nephews and nieces think you’re cool – way cooler than Mummy and Daddy with their day-to-day insistence on ‘learning’ and ‘values’. 

4. You have novelty value.

At some point as my daughter gets older, she’s going to get sick of my wife and I, because we’re there all the time. Hour after hour, day after day, week after week, of boring old Mum and Dad. But every time I see my niblings (ew), it’s a special occasion, so everyone’s excited. 

5. You can ignore the boring bits.

There’s lots of admin with kids that you don’t have to worry your care-free head about when you’re an uncle. Talking to their teachers, organising their lives, keeping on top of things like jabs. Nope! That’s for parents. My nephews and niece are the cute people I talk to on Skype and try to make laugh by balancing things on my head.

6. If you don’t have kids, they’re practice material. 

I had never held a baby until I became an uncle. Many of us have no idea what it takes to look after a kid, so spending time with someone else’s brings the idea slightly closer to reality. And, having kids in your extended family that you can watch all the way through childhood is pretty useful – seeing what your nieces and nephews like and dislike, how they talk and what they’re worried about is helpful stuff if you have your own kids. 

7. Hand-me-downs are great.

Free stuff for your kids? The dream. 

8. They *could* stop you popping out more kids.

Hear me out. There’s a weird thing as a parent where, due to being really tired the first few years, you forget how hard it was. You start looking at other people’s babies, all tiny and adorable next to your thuggish toddler, and ponder having more. If your brother or sister has a child instead, you can scratch that itch with their babies’ little squishy arms and soft heads before handing them back. Win win.