How does your family react to the hobby ?

I am in the process of getting my first doll. When I told my father about it and what the doll cost, his reaction was along the lines of, "Why?" Like he was saying there were other things you could spend your money on. I was like, the doll is very important to me. The the conversation kind of ended there. I'm just wondering what his reaction will be when I show him the doll. He has never seen a BJD in real life before and doesn't seem that interested in looking at pictures of them xp

 

My mom's alright with with it, except when we're arguing. She always throws everything I do, BJDs, my porcelain dolls, anime, manga, my writing, my old book collection, and my coin collection in my face.

 

I'm not quite sure if I posted before but: I started right off by telling my parents the price. Actually, I purposefully shocked them by waving around photos and going "wowzers 1000 for dolls that's so nuts!" and then finding a doll for $500 after that seemed perf reasonable to everyone involved. Well, I also mentioned resale value. It wasn't really a cunning plan, but that's how it happened lol.

My parents struggle to understand my hobbies and they are such dearhearts but I think they need time to get used to the idea :p I do understand negative reactions and I'm relieved my family isn't too off-the-wall about it. They are the kind who would throw out stuff deemed 'useless'

 

They're starting to get a look of "getting real tired of your sh**. You're 18 it's not cute anymore!" And my mom really wishes I would open a saving accouts instead of buying more dolls xD

 

My dad thought it was creepy at first but has gotten used to Remi and calls him by his name instead of "that thing" lol. My mom on the other hand is a collector of dolls and only has beef with the fact that I want to change his face up she thinks I'll ruin his value by it. She's given up on convincing me otherwise now.

 

Apparently my Dad thinks it's stupid of me to spend so much money on dolls, I thought he was being supportive but apparently he was tolerating it until he had a chance to bug me about how I'm spending my money. I'm 27, live with my fiance and make sure my bills are paid before putting any spare money away for dolls. I'd say he should be proud of how responsible I am.

 

My parents are more and more supportive the more I delve into this hobby. My mom even commented that she noticed that a lot of the people in the hobby seemed to have a sense of honor about them. She's really been super helpful with getting Avalon all well...Set up. I got him re-strung with her help both times I did it and when she went with me to the meet she had this look of awe on her face...Like she really understood it now. I think it's now safe to totally mention wanting certain dolls and sizes...But I also know which types she likes and that kind of puts an ease...We have the same doll tastes so if I want a certain doll I look for not only attributes I adore but attributes she likes.

I know I shouldn't be getting dolls that aren't totally suited to me...But me and my mom are super close like best friends and whilst coming into the hobby was all me a lot of the dolls I almost got in the past WEREN'T suited to me well...She even said I can't see you happy with this doll you looked so scared of the last one you got that was expensive that I don't think you'd be happy with that one.

Then I got Avalon and any fears of wrecking him...? Out the window for the both of us.

 

My mom loves my dolls and bought me my second Freya as an early birthday gift. She thinks they're really neat and doubly so because she likes cats (the Freyas are anthro dolls, for anyone who doesn't know). She doesn't really know the...depth of the hobby and the expensiveness of other dolls, but I think she'd be thrilled with one of her own. I think my grandmother would have loved them before she passed away, she used to sew clothes for my Barbies and stuff when I was growing up.

My boyfriend wants a doll, and tolerates my babbling about them to him, haha.

 

My mom says its weird and sometimes she eyeballs my Msd boy Seiya, and sometimes when I have my hands full and I ask her to hold him, I see her stiffly trying to hold him and stare at him.
Although she does get envious at how beautiful their clothes are, a
nd sometimes she hints at me to get a girl.
When I ask why she replies "Because....You can find girls clothes and they are prettier?...." ahem, good excuse mom

 

Eh... It varies upon my parents moods, my father doesn't mind much what I do, but I can tell he quails at their price tag! My mother? Varies massively, one day she helps, by finding stuff that she thinks would suit them, such as storage boxes, fabric etc. - but then a few hours later will oh so casually throw into the conversation how much money they cost me, and that I should sell them since I "never liked dolls as a child anyway" Sigh... She doesn't quite seem to grasp the concept that these things aren't really children's toys but she does try!

 

i don't really have a very good relationship with my mother (have not seen her in person in years) but she heard that i collect dolls and sent me some doll clothes recently - they were really ratty second hand ones that were clearly from some thrift store, but it was a nice gesture (perhaps a peace offering) from someone who has been very critical and negative towards me most of my life.

my father is actually partly responsible for becoming interested in dolls in the first place, before i knew what BJD were. his hobby is antiques collecting and he once bought me a vintage doll as a birthday present. it was absolutely hideous, but i was really happy that my dad understood my love of dolls from a young age so i pretended i really liked it...although when i left home i made sure that it stayed in my old bedroom and didn't come with me!

to this day he encourages me to collect them- he projects a lot of himself on to me, so his collection of treasured antiques is equivalent to my collection of precious dolls in his eyes. he justifies my doll collection the same way he justifies collecting antiquities.

i have no other close family members aside from my s/o's family, who find my dolls amusing and fun to play with when i bring them over to his family's house.

 

I currently don't have my own BJD right now (but soon!), but my sister bought her 1st BJD 2-ish years ago.
My mum doesn't seem to mind (besides she has accepted the fact that her 5 kids all have weird hobbies lol.) and because her job is involves sewing, I tend to sew doll clothes with my mum's sewing machine when she's not busy. She was actually quite proud of me when I made a skirt for my sister's SD. She has bought me dolls before (like Blythe) so she's pretty much okay with buying them for me as long as it's a Christmas/Birthday related present.
My Dad on the other hand doesn't really care or know much about them, but I feel he wouldn't like them if I told him how much they cost!
And lastly, my siblings are cool about them, my eldest sister actually likes them, and would consider buying one, my 2nd eldest sister is a BJD owner and my younger siblings both like collecting other things and they don't really say anything negative.

 

My mom is very supportive -- she often lets me talk to her about doll stuff, and she does like my dolls. The rest of my family thinks I'm a little weird, but they don't bother me about it. As for my boyfriend, well, he's the one who pays for most of my dolls, so of course he doesn't mind. He's pretty supportive of everything I do, and he always tries to get involved in whatever it is I'm doing.

 

I don't think they care much.
Here is this kind of policy in my family that each person does whatever they want with their money, since we all have expensive hobbies that are sometimes seen as weird by others.
I don't think they are super fans of my dolls, they are more on the neutral side. My mom always says she finds one of my dolls very beautiful when she sees her. But that's it... No hard times, but no personal interest, either.

 

Well, my parents trust me with my own money, as long as I'm able to take care of my bills otherwise. I haven't told them that I was investing more than $200+ on Dolls yet, but seeing as I am living out on my own, I don't think they'd really care. I'm a mature adult with two jobs and few hobbies, so hopefully they won't really care. Heck, I'm spending about that much on an anime convention this upcoming weekend, so I think they know I'm a geek by now. :p

 

It just makes me laugh... My personal goal is for a future girlfriend to say,"you love those damn dolls more then me". Now that would really make me laugh.

 

Both parents and my older sibling think it's just a waste of money. They really don't understand why I'd spend so much money on a doll. I've tried explaining to them that it's just like buying a brand new flat screen tv. You don't need it and it can do just about the same exact things as an older tv so why spend the money? Mom understood it a little more afterwards but either way my whole family is still kind of confused about the hobby. If all else fails I just say it's for creative purposes.

 

My family doesn't seem to care either way actually, it might have to do with the fact that I am an adult and I live alone... Despite them not caring either way my Mom does get me stuff for my dolls, on my birthday and other holidays so I guess that can be considered as supportive XD

 

My mom doesn't care what I do with my money because she's said I've earned it and won't stop be from spending it on whatever I spend it on, but my dad however is a completely different story. I spent $240 on my model for Yumi, not to mention the cost of her wig, her eyes, and her shoes, and he was like, "You spent that much money on a doll!?! If you're going to be spending that much on something stupid why not spend that much money to help out with the rent or the bills?" Yeah that's just how he is. I've helped out with those exact things before, so I deserved something nice. I plan on buying more whether he yells at me for it or not. Yumi needs her twin brother, and I need my doll crush.

 

My parents dont really like the hobby, but my mom is more ok with it than my dad is. My dad tells me that I need to stop buying crap because it is a waste of my money ( even though he buts legit "crap" on ebay ). Well my mom likes the dolls she thinks that I am getting ripped off. She tells me that they are to expensive because she never paied over 200 for any of her porcelain dolls, and she has about a good 30 of them ranging in sizes up to 90cm..