Parent & Friend Reactions to your Bronyness: Before & After

[Rizoel & Crepuscule 490]

Well, as a 16 year old from the UK, my family and older brother aren't really bothered now, but 8 months ago, they were all quite surprised.

 

My brother was the one to find out about my bronyness about 1 week after becoming a brony. He has about the same knowledge as me when it comes to internet culture, and spends a lot of time on the internet just like me. So after suddenly walking into my room while I was watching some pony:

 

Brother: "Hey, watch'ya doin-" *Ponies. Ponies everywhere.*

 

Me: *Bad Pokerface*

 

Brother: "..." *Facepalm* "...You gotta be s***ing me."

 

Me: "I- I'm sorry... T-they got me too." *Pout*

 

Brother: "Mother! Come sort your 'son' out!"

 

Mother: "What's he blown up this time?"

 

Me: "Nothing!" *Twilight Sparkle Innocent Face*

 

Brother: "He's watching My Little Pony."

 

Mother: "..."

 

Me: "..." *Pout*

 

Brother: "..."

 

Mother: "Cool." *Walks out of room*

 

Me: *EverythingWentBetterThanExpected.jpg*

 

Brother: *Cue FUU-*

 

I don't remember exactly how it went down, but I remember the first thing my older brother did was to feel the need to tell my mother. He was never serious about insulting me about me being a brony, but didn't think I was serious about liking a 'little girls show' until January. I'll get to that in a sec.

 

My mother just thought it was cute and quickly accepted it.

 

For my dad, he too found out via my brother. He was just like: "..." *Raises eyebrow* "Ok. Whatever."

 

Everyone in the family thought it was all a joke for the first few months until January, when I asked dad to buy me a pony hoodie with my own money.

 

Me: "Hey dad, could you help me buy something?"

 

Dad: "Only if your paying for it."

 

Me: "I am." *Brings up the page for the hoodie I want*

 

Dad: "...Wait... were you serious when you said you liked this My Little Pony s**t?"

 

Me: "Yup!" (I learned to stop caring about what other people thought of me by now.)

 

Dad: (Jokingly) "Son... Why didn't you just tell me you were gay?"

 

Both my dad and brother's frequency of mocking me has started to reduce over the past 8 months or so of discovering my bronyness. In fact they hardly notice now even when I wear my pony hoodie in public with them. Although my brother tends to keep his distance from me when we're in public when I'm wearing it, which is understandable.

 

That pony hoodie by the way is perhaps the only reason I've started to make an effort to socialize.

 

My parents know about the good bits about the fandom, but are also aware of the bad parts of the fandom, but since my parents have some experience with the internet, they understand why that is so, and didn't make a big deal out of it. (I swear I have the most open-minded parents in the world.)

 

All they really know is that being a brony is a bit of a hobby, just something I do in my spare time. What they don't know is too much of my spare time is spent on ponies. And since I don't go to school anymore... That's quite a lot of time.

 

They also don't know just how highly I think of a certain purple unicorn. If they found out about the fact that I imagine being friends with her a bit too much for my mental health...(And yes, JUST friends.) Actually, I don't think they would care if they only found out that I have a massive crush on her.

 

If they somehow found out about some of the... things I have imagined me and Twi' doing together(VERY rare! And I have NEVER purposely looked up R34 of anypony, nor have I ever enjoyed what I have seen.) ... I still think they won't make a big deal out of it. Although it might make any conversation a little awkward for the first few days afterwards.

 

...

 

Don't judge me! I meant it when I said I was sorry, Twilight!

[Lazy 66]

I feel like my dad would completely understand, he still loves to watch Spongebob and I've seen him browsing memebase a few times on his computer. Yeah, my dad is pretty awesome

[Fox 5,330]

I had no interest in telling my mother, until she saw the shirts I bought. Then she called them gay.

[~Chaos~ 3,966]

My mom told my aunts so it's slowly spreading that I am a Brony, which is good!

 

They don't mind at all!

[Haven Celestii 9,385]

I dont think I will tell my mom unless she asks herself. she did see me watching it once though, but didnt exactly ask why I was watching it.

[Archangel 143]

To make a long story short my parents don't know I watch the show. I think. See, once I left my ipod on the table right? See, I leave it unlocked to make it faster than me, since 99% of the time I have it on me. 'Cept for this time. I heard some laughing and weird screeching sound. At the time I didn't think anything of it.

 

Then I remembered my iPod wasn't on me. Panicking, but hiding it, I causally walked out to the kitchen and grabbed it. Looking at the App history they did poke around, mostly games and stuff, but ponies were found. I assume the screeching came from the horrible speakers built into these things.

 

Thank Celestia they didn't open my pictures though. I have some uh, clopping material in there.

 

They never spoke about it the next day or day after that, and so on and so on. So either they know and don't care, or secretly think I'm gay or something.

 

I come from a Christian home so this will either go down really well, or really badly. I'm not sure which and that scares me a little... Okay a lot. I'm man enough to admit that the religion I'm in, while I believe it, does happen to be filled with a lot of prejudiced and petty people.

 

Man, that felt good to get off my chest... Still worried though.

Edited June 6, 2012 by Archangel

[Lunalake 2]

Good god.... My mother freaks every time I'm on a Brony site...

[PINKIEPIELOVER 2]

Well I think my dad thinks I'm gay and my mom doesn't really care. she thinks it's just a phase. I'm not gay and it's not a phase. My friends are okay with it as long as I don't talk about it a lot.

[Platinum_Streak 3]

All my freinds and family know. Oh god, the constant teasing. It used to irk me quite a bit, but now I just laugh at them, I even got my Dad to watch a bit of the show.

[SparkleMarx 6]

most of my family is actually pretty indifferent about it, except my brother who thinks it's hilarious

[The 13th Doctor 0]

My parents were like : 'wait,isn't that a show for girls?!'

now they are like : 'we buy you ponies'

[AnonymousTheSecond 47]

................................

Edited March 21, 2021 by AnonymousTheSecond

[Random User 249]

Welp my dad doesn't honestly care that much if I like My Little Pony, though he'll crack a joke or two about it sometimes. He tends to do that with a lot of things though, and I know he means it all in jest. He's a cool guy like that. My mum is terrified that I may be homosexual since I watch the show, which I find annoying. Nothing too significant though. They mostly don't bother me about it.

[Tom 890]

They don't know, and I doubt that they know about bronies or FiM either anyway. So I'd have to explain all of it to them if I did tell them about me being one.

[Scarfy HOOVES 310]

My mom knows and she just calls me gay and fag and stuff cuz she thinks its funny. In fact my mom is the least accepting of all my friends. and my dad will never know i don't think he would care that much but he would defiantly find it weird and i dont wont him tot think any less of me than he already does.

 

My parents absolutely HATE the fact that I like My Little Pony. Here's the story, I was surfing YouTube one day, found some brony-made conent, and watched the first episode of MLP FiM, and instantly, I became a brony. I was so cool with it, that I told my 9 year old brother, looking back on it now, I WISH I HADN'T!! I was so stupid! I showed him the MLP opening, and the clip of Spike at the donut shop, he blurted it out to my parents at every moment he got, and they just laughed and thought he was just joking. About 4 months later, knowing who Derpy was, and gaining more brony knowledge, I came home from school one day to print some MLP pictures to hang on my wall, my laptop dosen't connect to our wireless printer so I had to use the desktop computer in that room over there. My parents came home and afterwards and my dad happened to go on the SAME computer that I wass using. It turns out I didn't cover up my tracks very well, and my dad found all of the pictures I printed. He told me to come in the room.

 

"Why did you print these My Little Pony pictures?"

 

"I like the show."

 

"But it's for six year old girls.."

 

That night we didn't say much to each-other... Then on another night, I made a HUGE mistake, and I was so stupid. I go to scouts on a Wednesday night, and on that night we had this game where you tell everyone something that no-one else knows about you. Everyone was saying simple stuff like "I had a pet, but he died" and "I like The Simpsons", and I thought it would be pretty funny if I said I liked My Little Pony, so I did, and everyone was really shocked. One of the guys in my group was all like:

 

"What caused to like My Little Pony?"

 

"The TV Show"

 

"...Why?"

 

My scout leader happened to be playing the game with us, and that was the trouble. After Scouts ended, my Dad talked with my scout leader and HE told him I said I like My Little Pony. He was furious. We got in the car, and I thought everything was going great until he uttered some words that made my smile turn upside down...

 

"Why did you tell everyone you liked My Little Pony?"

 

I NEVER thought my scout leader would tell him that. I was so mad with myself. He yelled at me all the way home, and said how I embarrassed myself. I wasn't so embarrassed, but I could tell he was. When we got home, he told my mum. (I'm from New Zealand)

 

"Jamie told everyone he likes My Little Pony"

 

"Oh, you're joking..."

 

"Nope."

 

"JAMIE!"

 

From that point on, I was really scared. My dad was cross, and my mum asked me why i liked the show.

 

"It's funny, you can really relate to the characters, and it has references only older audiences would understand."

 

When we all went to bed, my dad came into my room, and had a long talk with me.

 

"Do you REALLY like My Little Pony?"

 

"Yes."

 

"*sigh* It's alright. It's alright if you like this."

 

"Ok."

 

That night, I was sure my dad was very disappointed in me. I felt really sad, and thought, If I had never told my brother, or my scout group, none of this would have happened. The next day, after school, my dad came home and said I have to knock off this My Little Pony S***. And boys my age do NOT like MLP. My mum agreed. I was agreeing too, but to this day, I still watch the show on my iPod, and do MLP stuff on my laptop. Sorry if that story was long, but it felt good to get that off my chest. MLP does not play in my country, and my parents do not know ANYTHING about bronies. My brother still makes fun of me time to time, but I don't care that much, anyway, stay strong, my brony friends.

 

that's the saddest thing i ever heard in my life my heart just breaks for you. If you dont mind me asking how old are you?

[Tom 890]

I wish there was something I could do to help you guys whom parent's are intolerant or even spiteful.

[The Internet 17]

My father thinks that my development is stunted. He's actually offered to take me into therapy for it. And then he saw that I was converting my friends to it, and he stopped having an opinion.

I also used to be a pretty awful kid (drugs, drinking, etc.) so he's fallen in love with the change. He'd rather me watch ponies and use their morals than misbehave. :3

[Ezynell 2,036]

My parents absolutely HATE the fact that I like My Little Pony. Here's the story, I was surfing YouTube one day, found some brony-made conent, and watched the first episode of MLP FiM, and instantly, I became a brony. I was so cool with it, that I told my 9 year old brother, looking back on it now, I WISH I HADN'T!! I was so stupid! I showed him the MLP opening, and the clip of Spike at the donut shop, he blurted it out to my parents at every moment he got, and they just laughed and thought he was just joking. About 4 months later, knowing who Derpy was, and gaining more brony knowledge, I came home from school one day to print some MLP pictures to hang on my wall, my laptop dosen't connect to our wireless printer so I had to use the desktop computer in that room over there. My parents came home and afterwards and my dad happened to go on the SAME computer that I wass using. It turns out I didn't cover up my tracks very well, and my dad found all of the pictures I printed. He told me to come in the room.

 

"Why did you print these My Little Pony pictures?"

 

"I like the show."

 

"But it's for six year old girls.."

 

That night we didn't say much to each-other... Then on another night, I made a HUGE mistake, and I was so stupid. I go to scouts on a Wednesday night, and on that night we had this game where you tell everyone something that no-one else knows about you. Everyone was saying simple stuff like "I had a pet, but he died" and "I like The Simpsons", and I thought it would be pretty funny if I said I liked My Little Pony, so I did, and everyone was really shocked. One of the guys in my group was all like:

 

"What caused to like My Little Pony?"

 

"The TV Show"

 

"...Why?"

 

My scout leader happened to be playing the game with us, and that was the trouble. After Scouts ended, my Dad talked with my scout leader and HE told him I said I like My Little Pony. He was furious. We got in the car, and I thought everything was going great until he uttered some words that made my smile turn upside down...

 

"Why did you tell everyone you liked My Little Pony?"

 

I NEVER thought my scout leader would tell him that. I was so mad with myself. He yelled at me all the way home, and said how I embarrassed myself. I wasn't so embarrassed, but I could tell he was. When we got home, he told my mum. (I'm from New Zealand)

 

"Jamie told everyone he likes My Little Pony"

 

"Oh, you're joking..."

 

"Nope."

 

"JAMIE!"

 

From that point on, I was really scared. My dad was cross, and my mum asked me why i liked the show.

 

"It's funny, you can really relate to the characters, and it has references only older audiences would understand."

 

When we all went to bed, my dad came into my room, and had a long talk with me.

 

"Do you REALLY like My Little Pony?"

 

"Yes."

 

"*sigh* It's alright. It's alright if you like this."

 

"Ok."

 

That night, I was sure my dad was very disappointed in me. I felt really sad, and thought, If I had never told my brother, or my scout group, none of this would have happened. The next day, after school, my dad came home and said I have to knock off this My Little Pony S***. And boys my age do NOT like MLP. My mum agreed. I was agreeing too, but to this day, I still watch the show on my iPod, and do MLP stuff on my laptop. Sorry if that story was long, but it felt good to get that off my chest. MLP does not play in my country, and my parents do not know ANYTHING about bronies. My brother still makes fun of me time to time, but I don't care that much, anyway, stay strong, my brony friends.

 

That's... just terrible. I don't really know what to say. Wow...

[Manticore 30]

I remember saying "Mom, i'm going to go watch My Little Pony" out of the blue and she was like "...What?"

 

This was when I was first watching MLP. She ended up coming into the room about an hour and a half and she looked at my laptop screen and said "Holy shoot you're really watching them."

 

Then that was pretty much it. She never questioned me... outloud.

[NotDavid_ 62]

No one knows im a brony but one of my friend and she dose not care, but if they did my mom would not really care, but my dad would say "I have no son." D=

Edited July 1, 2012 by Zootycooner

[Nah 3,181]

My parents don't care, my Mom is a little enthusiastic about watching an episode with me, my Dad doesn't mind, all though, at times, I can tell he never got the son he wanted, a sports obsessed one that is very athletic, not a weak, underweight, 17 year old teenage boy who loves My Little Pony.

[F-22brony 64]

My parents don't know, I'm pretty sure, but my friend Zack next door he/ his dad are bronies. WWWWWWAAAAAAAANNNNNNNTTTTTTT.

Oh, and my Dad would want to kill me, literally.

[Motion Spark 7,807]

My parents absolutely HATE the fact that I like My Little Pony. Here's the story, I was surfing YouTube one day, found some brony-made conent, and watched the first episode of MLP FiM, and instantly, I became a brony. I was so cool with it, that I told my 9 year old brother, looking back on it now, I WISH I HADN'T!! I was so stupid! I showed him the MLP opening, and the clip of Spike at the donut shop, he blurted it out to my parents at every moment he got, and they just laughed and thought he was just joking. About 4 months later, knowing who Derpy was, and gaining more brony knowledge, I came home from school one day to print some MLP pictures to hang on my wall, my laptop dosen't connect to our wireless printer so I had to use the desktop computer in that room over there. My parents came home and afterwards and my dad happened to go on the SAME computer that I wass using. It turns out I didn't cover up my tracks very well, and my dad found all of the pictures I printed. He told me to come in the room.

 

"Why did you print these My Little Pony pictures?"

 

"I like the show."

 

"But it's for six year old girls.."

 

That night we didn't say much to each-other... Then on another night, I made a HUGE mistake, and I was so stupid. I go to scouts on a Wednesday night, and on that night we had this game where you tell everyone something that no-one else knows about you. Everyone was saying simple stuff like "I had a pet, but he died" and "I like The Simpsons", and I thought it would be pretty funny if I said I liked My Little Pony, so I did, and everyone was really shocked. One of the guys in my group was all like:

 

"What caused to like My Little Pony?"

 

"The TV Show"

 

"...Why?"

 

My scout leader happened to be playing the game with us, and that was the trouble. After Scouts ended, my Dad talked with my scout leader and HE told him I said I like My Little Pony. He was furious. We got in the car, and I thought everything was going great until he uttered some words that made my smile turn upside down...

 

"Why did you tell everyone you liked My Little Pony?"

 

I NEVER thought my scout leader would tell him that. I was so mad with myself. He yelled at me all the way home, and said how I embarrassed myself. I wasn't so embarrassed, but I could tell he was. When we got home, he told my mum. (I'm from New Zealand)

 

"Jamie told everyone he likes My Little Pony"

 

"Oh, you're joking..."

 

"Nope."

 

"JAMIE!"

 

From that point on, I was really scared. My dad was cross, and my mum asked me why i liked the show.

 

"It's funny, you can really relate to the characters, and it has references only older audiences would understand."

 

When we all went to bed, my dad came into my room, and had a long talk with me.

 

"Do you REALLY like My Little Pony?"

 

"Yes."

 

"*sigh* It's alright. It's alright if you like this."

 

"Ok."

 

That night, I was sure my dad was very disappointed in me. I felt really sad, and thought, If I had never told my brother, or my scout group, none of this would have happened. The next day, after school, my dad came home and said I have to knock off this My Little Pony S***. And boys my age do NOT like MLP. My mum agreed. I was agreeing too, but to this day, I still watch the show on my iPod, and do MLP stuff on my laptop. Sorry if that story was long, but it felt good to get that off my chest. MLP does not play in my country, and my parents do not know ANYTHING about bronies.

Also, when we were going to the movies to see Brave, My brother just randomly lied and said, "Jamie was drawing a My Little Pony picture on his computer last night!", when I didn't. My dad suddenly shouted "You'd better not of, I'VE TOLD YOU NOT TO!!" So yeah, my dad is real aggressive, and he doesn't know ANYTHING about the brony community, my dad is just mad about it because he thinks I'm the only boy in the world that likes MLP. I think that if I tell him about bronies, he'll just get mad and worry about me becoming one. I WISH I had some sort of amnesia ray to erase my brother, mum, and dad's memories of me liking MLP, but those sort of things don't exist, so I'm going to be looked down upon by my dad for years.

My brother still makes fun of me time to time, and I hate it, but I can't get him to stop, I just hope HE doesn't become a brony, because he's only nine. anyway, stay strong, my brony friends.

 

This is ridiculous, this reminds me to the "family...i'm gay"-talk, when in the end you're just talking about a show u like, there are a lot of documentaries of bronies on youtube, you should show them to your parents and teach them about the community and how creative they are, show them the music and the fan animations they do, show them how passionate this community is and how kind they are with each other and how we celebrate friendship all across the world

[AnonymousTheSecond 47]

................................

Edited March 21, 2021 by AnonymousTheSecond

[Acebloodstar23 12]

They were aginst it at first but now they got over it after awhile.