What do your friends/family think of your hobby?

[Brainbox]

I'm just sat in my ICT lesson on a break, and attracting minor interest on what i'm doing (posting here ;-) )

So, I was just wondering how people react to your 'deepest darkest secret'. Do they laugh or do they cry?

Most people I know seem to accept it and actually secretly think its quite cool. Obviously there are some slight sniggers, but each to his own. Everyones entitled to an opinion. But my close friends accept that lego is who i am, and that its not going to change. My family live with it. I'm not sure they approve completely, but theres nothing they can do about it >:-) . Sorry...

People build up a sort of age blanket surrounding 'toys'. Up to about 10 its fine, and then after 16 its fine what with being 'adult'. Anywhere in between is a no-go area.

So how about you?

[UltraPrime]

Well, my kids love it. They like playing with the train. My brother thinks it's great too - he would love to have a layout if he had the space ;-)

Most of my mates are 'geeks' of somesort, so whilst Lego may not be their thing, they have their own vices X-D

[Brainbox]

Most of my mates are 'geeks' of somesort, so whilst Lego may not be their thing, they have their own vices X-D

Unfortunately mine aren't. Most of my friends like football (I don't) so i'm a bit of a lone angel.

[Robiwan]

My family had accepted and I think after our visit in legoland they can understand me why I do this. And they know where I having from this. My father loves also build models, but in a other way, he had a big modeltrain in the garden.

My friends, a few accept that it gives me only with lego ;-) but the most find it is childish and not the right for a student, they say it will be better when I employ me with girls 8-| ... But nobody can change my opinion about lego as my hobby. :-)

[Hobbes]

My friends smile at first, but then give me tips where to find LEGO now and then, and some even gave me their old sets/bricks. Of course, the occasional joke is omnipresent.

My family (including in-laws) is glad they don't have to think much about presents for me.

*sweet*

[Cabby]

I guess i get more bad than good opinions on my Lego hobby.

Some are pretty vexating actually, but my wife likes it. That's all i'd care for since we live under the same roof. :-)

[vahkimetru]

I get about 12 wierd looks in my computer class when me and my friend look at Lego websites during our free time. There's also an occasional "Ha ha! You still like Legos!!!!!"

[dillthepill]

Yes, I am like Vahkimetru. I always look at LEGO's in my computer freetime, and my teachers get mad. I once got busted for posting on this forum. ;-)

Well, my family and friends don't really like me and LEGO's, and people at school make fun of me for it sometimes(like Brainbox said, the age between 10 and 16 for toys is the worst.)

[Athos]

My parents think its a little childish and silly, but are generally positive about it. My girlfriend thinks it takes up too much space, though she'll go with me on Lego shopping trips and has bought me some sets on occasion. Some of my friends think its quirky and others think its amazing what you can do with Lego.

And yes, the early teenage years can be a bit rough on your hobby, but don't give it up. You'll regret it later... and it gets better. And if your parents complain, just tell them its better than being into sex drugs and rock-n-roll...

Steve

[Legoman]

Unfortunately mine aren't. Most of my friends like football (I don't) so i'm a bit of a lone angel.

i'm more like brainbox.all my friends love sport, and they are really good at it.I suck at most sport.They all think i'm a geek for loving lego.But ever scince i won Robocupjuniour in New Zealand,they started to accept mabye lego is a little cool *sweet* .

[optimus-convoy]

Most of my family just accepts it and they don't really say there's anything wrong with it. (They have been dealing with it for 13+ years now. :-P )

Many of my friends are nerdy themselves, so they have no right to judge. X-D They sometimes even partake in a little Lego joy themselves. ;-)

[Kikuichimonji]

Well, they don't mind anymore, I think. Like said above, the age between 12 ands 16/17 is the hardest to get through. Your friends will think it's childish (and you parents likely will too).

I'm 19 now, and I tell my friends I collect it and don't play with it. I ocassionally get some weird looks but I really can't be bothered. I get the same looks for collecting retro games, so I've gotten used to that. It's not like I buy much anyway these days...

My parents are quite supportive in it nowadays. There used to be a period in which they basically forbid me to buy sets (I always asked if I could buy something and at some point they started saying 'no', I just didn't ask anymore afterwards :-D ). My dad actually picked up the 2007 SW sets in Cologne for me, so they've finally realized that it's a collection, not a toy. Now they still need to realize that my games are a collection too...

[vahkimetru]

Well at least I value my hobby, even though its crud to people in my class...

[Norrington]

generally my friends are supportive, buts that's because i choose my friends carfully, and i fortunatly choose friends who also love lego :-P in fact while i was talking to a friend who likes lego, and another friend who dosn't like lego, (he sold his a while ago on ebay) said that i had inspired him to start collecting lego again :'-) it's good to know that yet another person in the world likes lego aagain.

[Jipay]

just tell them its better than being into sex drugs and rock-n-roll...

Drugs are bad but i'm not sure about sex and rock-n-roll though :-D My parents are fe dup with it only because it takes a lot of space. Since I'm moving it won't be any problem. My friends used to make fun of me until this day at my post graduate program when we jad to build the highest tower made out of lego as fast as possible. Using SNOT I planned the building and my team won by far. This day I won their respect (aswell as some points for the course) :-D Plus I always show them some of those gigantic castles on brickshelf and then they are pretty impressed.

As for girls I barely mention the subject with them, it works better this way.

[alex54]

My parents are quite supportive in it nowadays. There used to be a period in which they basically forbid me to buy sets (I always asked if I could buy something and at some point they started saying 'no', I just didn't ask anymore afterwards :-D )

It's exactly the same with me! And my mother screams when I decided to build all my city layout in he livingroom : how I can clean the room with your legos? And I answer that I'm at home just for few weeks, so it makes me pleasur to do it, and it's just for few days (I works bette when you don't live in your parents'house for your studies!).

And for my friends, my real ones, they don't laught at me. They don't pay attention so much for the majority (I do what I want after all!), but some of them are old childfol, so they look with me BS during our freetime (really easy with the wifi in my hightschool). But with those kind of friends, they never give you their old sets, even if you tell us that their legos will be very well with all yours, and you will take care of them. I have tryed, but unsuccessfull :'-( :-D

And the other who laught, I think that they are not sweet people. Everybody can do what they want, and if you don't like what they do, just respect that!

[UltraPrime]

Here's a little story. As many of you know, as well as Lego, another love of mine is Transformers. Now, when TFs first appeared in 1984 I was 11 years old, so by most people my age's ideas, I was already too old. However, a group of us did like them so it wasn't too bad. I collected them up until 1989, and still thought they were great, but by that time everyone else had grown out of them and I caved into peer pressure and gave them all away. This is something I have regretted for years. I can now only dream of owning some of them again now.

If you like something, it should make no difference what anyone else thinks. It doesn't harm anyone else, so go for it. And I now share my hobbies with my two boys, so it's win-win round here!

[Jipay]

Yeah, I think it's definitly easier for the older afols. Especially with kids. At 30 or more, people just don't see things the same way. And others might have really expensive hobbies, so yours don't seem that bad in comparaison :-)

[El Bucanero]

My parents see it as a modelling hobby...(I like to build ships) They like my creations...Sometimes my father says there aren't enough details on my MOC's :-P And my mom won't let me buy from bricklink till I cleaned up my working table... :-| But they accept it...

My friends don't know about it. It's not my big secret, but they just don't know it. One of my friends was googling my name and he found my MOCpages, I expected him to laugh at me but he said: ' This is actually quite good!'....Some do think it's childish but I don't care about that, It's my hobby and they won't change that...

[snefroe]

Yeah, I think it's definitly easier for the older afols. Especially with kids. At 30 or more, people just don't see things the same way. And others might have really expensive hobbies, so yours don't seem that bad in comparaison :-)

well i don't think that's true, really... sure, these days Lego has become more than a toy. more and more people accept the notion of "Lego as a hobby", but that's fairly recent. 5-6 years back, when I got out of the dark age, being early 20's, people gave you this "wtf?"-look, clearly indicating you've become senile... thank god that is disappearing, especially when I mention to people that some Lego sets get sold for 400 euro and more, then suddenly it's "hm... maybe I should check what Lego sets I still have".

[CopMike]

Being 40 years old I

[xwingyoda]

My parents despise this hobby and my friends do not really understand it !! Only my best friend - SW fan - thinks some models are pretty cool !!

But, to tell you the truth, I don't really give a megablocks about what people think of my hobbies !! Live and let live I say ;-)

Amen CM: AFOL & proud of it! *y*

*yoda*

[Scouty]

X-O Yoda said megabloks!

I'll edit this post later with m side of the story. Hehee!

[hewkii9]

I'm just sat in my ICT lesson on a break, and attracting minor interest on what i'm doing (posting here ;-) )

So, I was just wondering how people react to your 'deepest darkest secret'. Do they laugh or do they cry?

Most people I know seem to accept it and actually secretly think its quite cool. Obviously there are some slight sniggers, but each to his own. Everyones entitled to an opinion. But my close friends accept that lego is who i am, and that its not going to change. My family live with it. I'm not sure they approve completely, but theres nothing they can do about it >:-) . Sorry...

People build up a sort of age blanket surrounding 'toys'. Up to about 10 its fine, and then after 16 its fine what with being 'adult'. Anywhere in between is a no-go area.

So how about you?

Nah. I fit in that age range, yet nary a week goes by when I tell of my LEGO exploits to the school [jokes, but a great base for a joke]. My parents are okay with it and buy me LEGO often, [i already know I'm getting BaTP for Christmas].

Of course LEGO pales in comparison to my raptor impression...

[BearHeart]

Im lucky because my best friend is also into Lego (thanks to me). We were both big into Lego as kids and we're just recently rediscovered the hobby. Him and I sometimes go on 'Lego runs', visiting different stores that sell lego in our city in hopes of finding older discontinued sets that have poped up on clearance or sales on newer sets.

My parents are OK with it, they know I've always loved Lego. My girlfriend is cool with it too, although she sometimes rolles her eyes when I talk about Lego too much.