Do your family show any interest?

[rocketandroll]

So... I know a lot of folks have children who have shown an interest in gaming or mini-painting... but other than that, how do people find their families treat their hobby?

The only reason I ask is that whilst my wife is supportive and despite having no real interest in fantasy or sci-fi what so ever makes suggestions, stops to look at what I\'m working on etc... my parents have a pretty negative view of mini-painting which showed up when I won my first demons last month.

In the lead up to any competition where I\'m having to spend any amount of time on painting they generally act like I\'m wasting valuable time when I should be doing something \'more grown up\', and despite a passing \'well done\' on the phone when I told them I\'d achieved a life-long goal and won two demons, they haven\'t expressed any interest in seeing the winning models or mentioned it since... apart from a comment from my mum along the lines of \"Thank goodness you\'ve achieved that, you can stop wasting time on it now can\'t you?\"

I guess they can\'t see that painting toy soldiers is something a thirtysomething year old married company director should spend their time doing.

Does anyone else feel frustrated by a similar attitude from family members?


Ben

 

[green stuff]

My wife supports it and even used to paint (tyneth) .

My sister accepts the hobby and gives me good feedback.

My parents have more or less the same opinion as yours .

My parents in law are more supportive because I paint things for my wife\'s nephews .

As one of my sister\'s friends put it for her gaming father : \"At least he doesn\'t spend his nights at the pub\" :drunk:.

 

[Ritual]

My family is supportive. My parents have always encouraged me to do creative things ever since I was a child, and having grown up haven\'t changed that. I\'m sure they don\'t understand fully the passion for the hobby that I feel, since none of them have a similar creative hobby, but they are always happy to see what I do and are proud of me when I win something. My brother and my sister are pretty much the same.

My girlfriend is very supportive and when I have to put in long hours of work before a contest she helps out by doing all the cooking and food shopping so that I can concentrate on getting my entries done. She also helps me by giving me criticism and suggestions. Not all of them are useful, but plenty of them are. She\'s not afraid of pointing out things that needs re-doing, and often when she does, I have felt the same but been reluctant to accept that I need to start over. So, when someone else points it out too I know immediately that I have to do it.

 

[painterboyroy]

Parents have been interested in the past as i have always been arty, now an illustrator for a profession. And were very pleased when I got my demons in 94.

1st misses, lol, it gave me something to do when she worked shifts as a nurse.

2nd misses, dabbled and was good for a beginner.

current partner, tolerates it, so i paint for an hour at lunch time at work. she does not mind it but has no interest, but my wall cabinet is up in the bedroom, out of sight..lol.

her youngest son, had some interest so I gave him loads of plastics which went into a box and stayed there collecting dust.

 

[Amazon warrior]

My mum is convinced that it isn\'t a hobby for a young lady (she\'d rather I sew or something*), but has kind of given up dissing me because it\'s quite clear that I\'m not going to stop any time soon. I suspect she prefers it to computer games. She does call my minis \"your little men\" in a faintly derogatory way, but last time I was at home, she suggested I get a proper daylight lamp to avoid wrecking my eyes. I think that\'s as close as I\'ll get to acceptance. In fairness, my parents have always had a \"do what you want, do it well\" attitude, so I can\'t complain. My sister doesn\'t have a clue, and has said as much. She and her boyfriend did give me some minis last Christmas, tho, which I thought was very kind of them.

My boyfriend initiated me into tabletop gaming, so he\'s the one to blame! I think he enjoys the geek kudos when he tells people his girlfriend plays rpgs and paints minis. I suspect he\'ll be less thrilled when I and my 500 friends want to move in with him...

At the end of the day, people may laugh or they may not, but at least I have something to show for it, and it\'s better than spending my weekends drunk in a ditch! lol

*Actually, I can sew and have made ball dresses before now. Mum taught me. And I\'ve been known to do embroidery and I like beading. If it\'s arty, I\'m interested!

 

[cybersquig]

Ben,

If you exchanged \'wife\' for \'girlfriend\', then I could have written your post word for word. Mum occasionally phones me with phrases like \'is beatrice becoming a painting widow yet?\'

Of course she isn\'t, it was her that brought me a high elf dragon in january and got me back into the hobby after 18 months out... I quickly sold it and brought some death korps and the rest is history... she\'s the harshest critic I have, when others in my area look at them and say they\'re great, she\'ll look at them and go \'well that\'s out of proportion, and that highlight\'s wonky and I\'m not sure about the shading on his face. It\'s a challenge just to get a neutral opinion from her, and that\'s really pushed my game, so I don\'t mind a bit!

James

 

[Logan]

My wife is supportive in as much as she just lets me get on and do it and doesn\'t quibble over what it costs. She also shows an interest when I\'ve completed summat.

Tried to get kids interested again and again but to no avail. Come to conclusion you can\'t force \'em.
My dad was right into model planes (and still is). He uesd to make us all sorts of models as kids and looking back I can see it was in the vain hope we\'d share his interest, but none of us did.

 

[mattsterbenz]

My parents support it, to an extent. They don\'t quite understand why painted toy soldiers are popular, but since I am able to pay my bills with painting they encourage me. If I tried to explain to them anything about the actual games involved with miniatures, I\'m sure they\'d get lost!

My brother plays Warhammer occasionally, but doesn\'t have the desire to paint. I got one of my younger sisters to try painting once, and of course she painted her Space Marine pink... lol

-Matt

 

[BarstoolProphet]

My girlfriend is quite supportive. She is also sometimes distracting, as she leans on my shoulder while I\'m painting, watching as closely as she can.

Other than that, my support network is those people that think I\'m good enough to hire me to paint for them.

 

[uberdark]

i have an obsessive nature and i think its part of my OCD... so when i got into mini\'s all i did WAS minis. for a good 9 months all i ever spent money on was miniatures. i finished a 3,000 point dwarf army in 3 weeks..... popped out an orc and goblin army in 4 weeks, then started buying up miniatures. of course those armies look like crap now. hehehe. anyhow my wife hit me over the head and said, dude you are waaaay to into it. i slowed down and enjoy working on miniatures about 2 hours a day.

i spend my lunch break which is an hour, and an hour at night after the kids have gone to bed working on stuff.

the boy loves it and has painted three. many of my old friends who used to play mage knight and what not have stopped hanging out w/me mainly because they want to play star wars miniatures all the dang time.... i seriously doubt they will ever get into the hobby.

my mom is fine with it now because i make money from it.... b4 she thought it was a worthless hobby.

my dad is indifferent, although he does ask if i have gotten any commissions or won any contests of late.... he hunts dogs and spends thousands of dollars a year on that, so he cant complain. hehe.

anyhow i would say in the end its a part of me now and ppl either get used to it or can walk away.

 

[gohkm]

My wife is quite supportive of it, actually. She encourages me to take part in painting competitions (even though I never amount to anything!), and doesn\'t make any fuss about the cost. She definitely understands that my way of relaxing is to sit down and paint until my eyes bug out.

My parents, on the other hand ... well, my dad disapproves, thinks I ought to be improving myself intellectually or something. My mum is quite good about it, though, she\'s always encouraged me to do what I like.

And to be honest, neither my wife nor myself have told my parents-in-law that I paint at all. We\'ll get around to it, someday.

 

[StarFyre]

ya

Shilpa is supportive of it and knows that if it came to a point between D&D and miniatures or her....well..we know what would win then

hehe

and on the side, by selling stuff now, can make small amounts of extra cash to buy blurays, etc...so it\'s all good.

family is indifferent as dad is so old, never had stuff like this back in india when he was a kid (30s, 40s)...so it all confuses him.

Sanjay

 

[Dragonsreach]

My dad shows an interest in the \"It\'s what my son does and I\'m proud of him.\" way, but doesn\'t really \"get\" the hobby to the level I\'m into it.
However he does apprieciate good paintwork when we were both looking on coolmini together.
Oh and I suppose he\'s a bit of a Marika fan as well, having met her.

 

[rocketandroll]

And you thought it was a wierd coincidence before?....

Originally posted by cybersquig
Ben,

If you exchanged \'wife\' for \'girlfriend\', then I could have written your post word for word. Mum occasionally phones me with phrases like \'is beatrice becoming a painting widow yet?\'

Of course she isn\'t, it was her that brought me a high elf dragon in january and got me back into the hobby after 18 months out... James

My wife is to blame for me getting back into the hobby because she bought me a dragon
A few years ago we walked into a shop in London called \'Orcs Nest\' because I mentioned how I used to enjoy painting minis when I was younger... they had this really huge metal dragon model in there (can\'t remember the make and haven\'t ever seen another one since) but I picked it up and \'ooohed\' a bit.... so she bought it for me.

I have to admit I don\'t think she had ANY idea what she was starting when she did so... but I can still claim it was her fault ;-)


And, to clarify, my folks are also arty people, my dad\'s a designer and my mum used to do chinese brush painting... and they\'ve always encouraged my creative efforts from my drawing when I was a kid through to my design degree, it\'s just mini painting they don\'t get.


Ben

 

[Dragonsreach]

Originally posted by rocketandroll
And, to clarify, my folks are also arty people, my dad\'s a designer and my mum used to do chinese brush painting... and they\'ve always encouraged my creative efforts from my drawing when I was a kid through to my design degree, it\'s just mini painting they don\'t get.


Ben

Tell them you enjoy the creative challenge in taking someone elses original design and adding your own flavour to it and they might \"get it\" then.

 

[AinuLainour]

Mom used to do hobby dollhouses I believe.

Dad is a huge supporter, sort of like a hockey mom(but Dad, naturally) and he understands the hobby quite well from a few different perspectives.

Sisters don\'t care too much, one more than the other though I haven\'t let her hold one since she dropped the Necron Nightbringer

My grandparents seem to find it quite interesting and always wish to see photos or look at the models in person.

So I\'m pretty lucky here. I probably get less support with my music which is sort of funny considering I do more of that nowadays than paint (not to suggest I\'m inactive, I have a WIP right now!).

 

[philologus]

My wife and kids all paint/model. My wife managed to get Honorable mention at the last ATL GD.

 

[Ritual]

Originally posted by AinuLainour
Dad is a huge supporter, sort of like a hockey mom(but Dad, naturally) and he understands the hobby quite well from a few different perspectives.

Your dad is a really cool person! And, since he came with you to World Expo, saw all the great stuff on display there and met quite a few really passionate hobbyists (i.e. complete nutters ) he knows what a positive thing this hobby is (or should know at least ).

 

[cybersquig]

Originally posted by rocketandroll

And you thought it was a wierd coincidence before?....

are you me?

 

[airhead]

Originally posted by Dragonsreach...and I suppose he\'s a bit of a Marika fan as well, having met her.

Who wouldn\'t be...???
Especially if you\'ve met her.
:wow:

My wife lets me paint if nothing else is more pressing (burst waterpipe, dishes, laundry, etc.). The oldest paints a bit and plays D&D. The youngest took all that creative energy and is in stage/costume design.

So she does what we do - life sized.