Parent & Friend Reactions to your Bronyness: Before & After

[Lost Profile 644]

I'm still a flutershy closet brony...

 

I'm a regular brony, I have merch and appeal, I tell friends but not all friends... I found one friend who was a closet brony... That caught me by surprise...

 

I was commenting on a friends art on FB... And sayed I could only do bad OC ponys.... She replied "tnx!!! And props to you for being a brony!!!"

 

I'm still keeping flutershy quiet about it... But I mention it sometimes...

[EpicMuffinTime 216]

I've been a brony for two years now. I've kept it secret from my friends and family for 22 months. When I told them, their reaction was a basic "Meh." I mean, yeah, they were cool with it. Eventually most of my friends became bronies. Now everyone at my school knows. Basically, all I got was a "that's pretty cool" or a "meh, seems legit." :3

[Prof. Yana 16]

Well, considering we all became Bronies at around the same time, I'd say quite well! My other friend introduced it to us, and we didn't have anything against it, so we started watching it. The first episode I saw was Boast Busters.

[Standard User 2,127]

My best bud was originally 100% against anything to do with MLP. Many unkind things were said about me, my sexual orientation, and my mother from my other friends.

 

But now that best bud is a brony too (and on these forums, no less) and the others think of it as a unique quirk I possess.

 

In addition, when I went shopping with the family today and I threw a blindbag in the cart, my mom made me go get more blindbags, then took me to other stores to look for other pony merch. So I had, overall, very good reactions.

[Brony44 22]

I have not told my parents yet, I am going slow on that since my dad is a homophobe. Not that I am gay, it is that he would think I am despite explanation of it being widespread and statistics show that less than 2%

of bronys are gay.. My mom knows what it is but does not know I am one, and she says it is quote on quote "bizarre" and she "does not even know any girls who watch it" even though it is my cousins favorite show, she is 5 and I watch t with her if I get the chance.

 

Anyways, how did you tell your parents if you did? And how did they react?

[SagasaPony 122]

Going by personal experience, you can never please everyone, so you might as well please yourself (within limits of course).

 

I never bothered telling my parents, since I didn't think it was that big a deal. I never hid it either so when they came across me watching the show, it didn't even get a single comment.

 

The trick to getting people to accept your hobbies is to never let on that its a big thing to you. Act like it's the most natural thing in the world for you to watch what you like and people eventually modify their world view to suit your actions. Above all, never enforce the negative stereotype that people have of the show's fans. Show them that we can like children's shows and still be well-adjusted and productive members of society.

[Dusty Soul 2,611]

I didn't tell them, they found out, and they didn't really care at all.  As long as you don't make a big deal of them finding out and such, it won't be bad.

[Flicker Sweet 3,391]

I remember my mom gave me a bit of grief about it, but really my parents couldn't care less what I'm into......my grades in school are good, I'm healthy, I have a job, there's no reason they have to worry about me liking sstuff

[XrosOver 613]

My experience went quite well. I had told my mother before my father because she would obviously handle it better. She laughed....afterwards she really could care less. As for my Father, I told him as blatantly as I could and he really didn't see any problem in me watching this show. I truly overestimated my parents reactions.

[Fridge 382]

They truely don't care. My mum finds it amusing and my dad finds it bemusing. In all of my family my brother is the only one with a real reaction and that was; 'Huh, looks kinda funny'.

[mycarhasaMoustache 449]

My dad said and this is an exact quote after I explained what a brony is he said "Since the day you welded a lawnmower engine to a peddle bike Nothing you do surprises me any more son." My mother didnt react since she was too busy texting someone to listen to me and I refused to repeat my self but I live by my self so I really dont care about their opinions of what I do in my spare time.

[Commander Urdnot 2,680]

I never told my father. He saw either my trading card collection, the figures on my desk, or my computer background and figured it out for himself. He wasn't very surprised.

Edited December 3, 2012 by Urdnot Pinkie Pie

[StingeMuffin 244]

I was asked twice if I was gay, once by my mother, and once by my younger sister. I told them no, and that was pretty much the end of it. I don't know about my sister, but my mom likes how the characters look, and they're both accepting of it.

[king error 50]

I think my mum knows as I was watching an episode at the time she walked in to ask me something, she didn't really say anything.

It was back when it pretty much just started so she may have forgotten about it.

 

 Honestly though I don't really care if my parents know or not you have the right to love / hate what you want. 

[Cthulhoof 7]

I have not told my parents yet, I am going slow on that since my dad is a homophobe. Not that I am gay, it is that he would think I am despite explanation of it being widespread and statistics show that less than 2%

of bronys are gay.. My mom knows what it is but does not know I am one, and she says it is quote on quote "bizarre" and she "does not even know any girls who watch it" even though it is my cousins favorite show, she is 5 and I watch t with her if I get the chance.

 

Anyways, how did you tell your parents if you did? And how did they react?

 

I didn't view it as any of their business, but then I no longer live at home. If I did live at home however I still probably wouldn't of bothered telling them. I wouldn't have kept it a secret, but I wouldn't have made out it was anything special either since it's just another hobby and not really a gigantic lifestyle choice (insofar as it does not dominate all facets of my existence).

 

My mum always wanted me to be gay so I imagine she'd of been so pleased until I told her being a Brony had nothing to do with sexuality in the slightest and everything to do with appreciating good writing and enjoyable television. Then she'd of just not cared much either way.

 

I suppose the closest I've gotten to what you're asking is when my fiance and best friend figured it out (independantly of one another), my fiance thinks it's adorable and encourages it, my best friend screamed 'god why!' and pretended to choke me for about 3 minutes (for him, this is sadly fairly normal behaviour).

 

Don't worry too much about your parents reaction, as had been stated by these other fine folks it really isn't that big of a deal unless you make it one.

[Brony44 22]

The problem is that I am only 14, I do not have a job and I do not live alone. :/ I may be overestimating my parents reaction but I am still scared of telling anypony anything. I have a few out of school friends who know, but they are used to me acting like this and they kinda expect this kind of stuff from me

[Drehgunklew 136]

My mom just said "We're a strange, strange family for sure." and laughed. Seriously, she didn't care. Now, my lilbro is a brony and she doesn't care about that either.

My dad... Well. I don't really know. He thinks it's wrong.

[Rolls Royce 606]

I just went home one weekend wearing a Fluttershy shirt, and they didn't care at all.  They're just happy I'm doing well in college.

[Brony44 22]

I just went home one weekend wearing a Fluttershy shirt, and they didn't care at all.  They're just happy I'm doing well in college.

 

I want to get a 20% cooler shirt, but I have no clue where. I live in Canada, it is hard to find a place, I am not sure if Walmart carries them. Back on topic, I would probably be happier with them just finding out than me telling them.

[~Master~ Button Mash 2,307]

I just went home one weekend wearing a Fluttershy shirt, and they didn't care at all.  They're just happy I'm doing well in college.

I did pretty much the same thing, just that it was a Dr. Hooves shirt, which I wore around the house after coming home from campus last Friday. My mom already knew about bronies, because I told her about them a while back, but from an objective standpoint, not expressly saying I was a brony. (That's how I normally do things like this. Put an idea in their heads, let it sit a while, then come back to it later on a more personal level). She definitely noticed the shirt, and I think she actually liked it. So I guess that means she knows I'm a brony now. Even if she's overall still a bit weirded out by the idea of this whole thing, overall I can tell she's supportive.

 

My dad didn't even notice. LOL.

Edited December 3, 2012 by Sky Nomad

[iLegovideo 152]

Well, I never told them directly. but they eventually found out. Well, it's hard to ignore a pony background  . Well they were disgusted by this, obviously. Mostly they were kind of surprised that a guy like me would like a show for "Little Girls". I didn't say anything about that, but they slowly are starting to approve of this fandom. They didn't think I was gay or anything, they just thought that I was insane or I was "Brainwashed". I didn't care when they say to stop watching it, because it is a darn good show! I guess it just was a hard concept for them to grasp for a while. My dad, based on recent events, is starting to approve of my fandom and I think he is becoming a brony.  . Of course, I shouldn't jump to conclusions, so I'm going to wait a bit. My sister already fell into the epic pony trap, but unlike most people, she tolerated my fandom when I first started watching. She even watched a few episodes to get a better feel for the series. I'm getting a bit off-topic here. So my parents rejected the show, even though they never watched it, but over time, they start to accept the show. Believe me, they tried EVERY way for me to stop watching the show, even though I said that it was a good show, but they still rejected the show for about a month or two. It actually had to come to an argument about "Equality", and I said that it wasn't fair to say that I have to respect THEIR hobbies when they are NOT going to respect MLP. From there on out, they finally understood why I watch the show.  . It was a long fought battle between my parents and me, but I won eventually. It's either that, or a ban on all things pony related. Generally, the first haters are the parents.  I just kind of wish that parents would be more open and accept them no matter what. Sure, parents can be upset, but in my opinion, it shouldn't affect how parents feel about their kids, no matter what kind of brony. We are all bronies, no matter what kind, clopper, regular brony, or just here to talk, our parents should accept us as a growing fandom, no matter how twisted they think we are. They should at least give us a chance, and I am lucky to have parents who understand our fandom and I am lucky to have parents who care to understand. 

 

 

 

Wow, that was a lot longer than I expected...  so what do you guys think?

 

 

Always your faithful member, 

 

~David Wang.

[Nordica 180]

I think they knew something was going on when pony shirts suddenly started appearing in the mailbox. I told them I dig them ponies, and that was the end of it. Life went on and my parents didn't care, friends didn't care, dudes at school didn't care.... nobody cared. The only one who has really teased me about it is my little sister at 10! It's seriously nothing to make a big deal out of. No one should ever feel afraid to talk to their parents about anything. If a person is scared of their parent's reaction to something as insignificant as this, I'd say they are doing a bad job as mother and father.

[duidamasterXD 9,627]

It was interesting actually. About a week after I started watching the show my mom brought up a segment on FiM that she listened to on NPR, and I mentioned that I was a fan of the show. She acted surprised ( although the timing of the conversation does seem rather suspicious) but really didn't seem to care about it any more than anything else that I'm interested in. One time when I was watching an episode on my phone with my brother and sister my dad was rather conspicuous about eavesdropping on us though ( He spent 20 minutes flipping through a book of guitar tabs when he's never touched a guitar in his life.) but he never said anything. I get the vibe that my mom doesn't care and my dad doesn't really know what to think but isn't going to force the issue. I'm ok with my situation since I know that it's better than a lot of people's. I feel very blessed.

[Arcanel 3,041]

I'm one of the lucky ones, to be honest. But first things first, if you're gonna tell them, DON'T make it a big deal. If it gets heated be it so, but dtry to calm your nerves when telling them. The more of a big deal you make it, the less certain you look and the worse it seems. And you want neither of those.

 

But anyway, as for me, it happened through an indirect case. Since I love brony music, I usually hear it a lot. One time I showed some songs to my dad, and when he from who it was, that's when I told him. I eased it in, told him about how much of an impact bronies have made outside, how so many males were watching the show, how many things have been done and so on. And he was perfectly ok with it. Best part was, I ended up showing him 3 songs, all from Tarbyrocks one of my two favorite brony musicians, and while he liked all of them, the last one, The Morning After, I went off to do something else, then heard that the song had repeated itself. My first thought was "Oh no, it was on replay!" Turns out, my dad had put it again himself. My mom happened to be there too, so she heard it as well and was just as okay.

 

So yeah...bless my parents. but if anything, another thing that can help you is use what the fandom has done that your parents could like. That could probably help a bit if you use the right things.

[Starshine 16,333]

My parents hardly care about my hobbies. I once a touhou fans, I even have a rather NSFW Reimu poster tacked on my room's wall, if they care they never show it.

 

The more frantic you tried to defend your hobbies, the more sceptical they will be. Just act like it was nothing important.