What's your friends' and family's opinion on pony collecting?

[Tulips]

My SO supports it and actively encourages me to buy ponies when I dither about how I don't deserve to spend my money on things I like... Which is because of my parents, who were never positive about my collecting while I lived with them (nothing I liked was interesting to them. I was told to shut up if I tried to talk about my likes or hobbies, only to have them hold that against me because I stopped socialising with them...)

[Snapdragon]

I used to think my mom was okay with the pony collecting, even supported it to an extent (she'll get me ponies for birthdays/Christmas, and seemed interested in helping me hunt down the last pearly ponies I needed!), but last week she sounded positively gleeful at the prospect of needing to de-clutter my room due to allergies. :/ Talk about a gut-punch.

[DazzleKitty]

My parents are pretty supportive of it and my dad, when he was at flea markets, has looked for ponies for me. My brother has looked for ponies for me as well when at yard sales and such. My parents, whom I live with, just hate how much I sometimes spend on them. And I will admit, sometimes I spend a little bit too much. But hey, this can be an expensive hobby.

My non-immediate family is very supportive too. My uncle deals in antiques and goes to flea markets and looks for ponies for me. And in general, they just find it to be a pretty neat hobby and my cousins like to see my pony room. A couple months ago I showed my little cousins my pony room and the look on their face.....even the little boy and the fact he said it was so cool......kinda gave me a sense of pride for my oddity. Haha!

My friends support it too and buy me pony gifts at times. I have really good friends.

At my old job, my coworkers would always bring me pony stuff. I was always known as the pony girl at the prison I worked at.

I am sorry some of you don't have this support system.   You should never have to be ashamed of such an innocent hobby. It's just colorful plastic equines. Who is it hurting? Why must it even be labeled as childish? It's just....a collection. Why must people like adult things anyways? It's funny how gun collecting is seen as more normal, when those things can kill you but collecting a plastic toy is just laughable. No offense to anyone who collects guns, as my dad does and his collection is pretty intense. Just trying to make a point.

[babypowder]

My family is pretty indifferent about it.

[Tracks]

I think I've already said my Mums thoughts on it, well she suprised me the other day when she came for a visit.

The other day, possibly about a week ago now, I moved all my boy ponies (5) downstairs to the empty shelves on a display unit we have in here together with Bubbles and Seashell.  Last Monday I received Confetti in the post so she and Applejack joined the others on the shelves.

They are right next to the chair that my Mum sits in and all the time she was here (7-8 hours) I was expecting her to see them and say something yet she never did.  She either saw them and made no remark which isn't like my Mum at all or she never saw them, knowing my Mum thats probably the more likely!

[KC8114]

I am VERY fortunate.  My boyfriend, which is the only opinion that matters, loves my pony collection and has surprised me with some wonderful and rare ponies since we have been together.  My parents and friends are very supportive as well.

To everyone that doesn't have a support system, know that you have all of us on the arena and we are always here for you!!!

[MrsB]

To be honest, nobody really knows about it. I only recently discovered my collection again in mums attic. Mum realised how delighted I was as she joked I'd have to get Dad to build me some shelves to display them on. My husband is less impressed at the moment - he'd much rather I was painting than spending time on MLP. (Im trying to become a professional artist while being a SAHM, but for personal reasons I have artist block and haven't painted for almost 4 months.) I'm also getting back into gardening now that spring is on it's way. I guess I'm just focussing on nurturing, happy things to get me through this tough time. I think my friends would laugh at me if they knew.
I've just bought a couple of G1 accessories on eBay and when they arrive I will add them to the box with my other few accessories and no-one will know! My collection is pretty small at the moment, so easy to add to without taking up tons of space.

[Katika]

My husband has a bit of a love-hate relationship with my collection. He's typically very helpful with adding to it (he'll randomly stop by Target and TRU to go look for new ponies, takes me to thrift stores and "emergency" stops at garage sales to check for second hand ponies, and if funds are right, seldom grumbles over when I ask about ebay or Arena purchases) but when new waves are dropped all at once, he always has that initial "punch to the gut" look before caving with the, "We'll buy them all eventually, may as well do it now" reasoning He knows that ponies mean a lot to me and, as he says, as long as we keep up with new releases, they're a heck of a lot cheaper than a lot of *other* things I could collect!

The rest of my family is relatively indifferent. My dad went through a phase where he thought it was stupid for me to be spending my money on toys, but when he finally got around to realizing that what I spent my money on didn't impact him, he quit caring. Now, he'll randomly ask if he can take updated pictures of my pony room so he can show people he knows. I still don't know the nature of those conversations, but I personally am pretty proud of my collection, so think that's fine.

[Beldarna]

My family was against it at first, until they realised they were worth money. I kind of told them my ponies are my retirement fund and they accepted it. Not much for a fund, but they don't need to know that, lol. 15 years later they're pretty indiffirent to it.

General statement from my surroundings is that it's cool. Some have dollcollections and they look out for ponies for me at times. My boyfriend has expensive camera equipments so he has no say.

[Tak]

Mine say I'm crazy, but I am, so no worries.

[Jorgito93]

My parents don't really care, though they are happy that it makes me happy.Close family don't care.I didn't really have any bad comment except for the usual joke about it.I'm pretty lucky for that

[Anitas_Mom]

My daughter has a big collection of G1's G3's and G4's and I would go to pony meets with her.  I won a G2 as a raffle prize at one of the meets and it was love at first sight.  Now I have a large collection of G2 (about 150 ponies).  Of course my daughter supports me in this and surprisingly, so does my husband.  Of course he has been supportive of me in my other collections as well (I have about 2,000 Donald Duck figurines and toys). When we have company, he always takes them to see the pony room and to see the duck room.

 My sister is facinated by my collections and I think a little jealous - hahahaha.  My friends think it is strange for a woman my age to collect little plastic ponies, but are not rude about it.  I really don't care what other people think.  I enjoy it.  Although I sometimes wonder what on earth will Anita do with all this stuff after I'm gone. 

[SaraMari]

My mom is my biggest supporter I would say, she's been going with me to thrift stores, flea markets, garage sales for years and years (I've been actively collecting for literally half my life now haha)  she buys me pony items when she comes across them. She supports my other collections as well.
I know my dad is aware of my collecting but it's not something we talk about a lot, he would never ridicule me about it. He typically gives me gifts that are way below my age level haha.
My fiance is between indifferent and supportive, he doesn't buy me ponies specifically but brings me small toys and things when he comes across them. He always encourages me to do what I like and buy what I like. I also have my own room in our house for my cute things (painted pink!)
My friends are mostly online and we are friends because we share interests in cute things, and I know they have their own collections as well. One of my friends once bought me a couple of ponies and mailed them to me

[Kyubey]

My parents don't really mind and even help me by buying ponies when they're on sale or if they find them at goodwill or at flea markets, although they do regularly ask me if I haven't gotten enough ponies already.

My boyfriend wasn't too thrilled about it at first, which was pretty much my own fault because I was only able to show him my pony room after one full year of collecting (during which I went from owning 10 ponies to owning more than 200). Needless to say, I ended up giving him quite the shock.  He knew I started collecting ponies but he didn't realise it went to that extent. He got rather upset at the thought that I would be bringing all these ponies along once we started living together. Luckily he calmed down quickly and apologized for overreacting. I reassured him that I would always keep my collection contained into one seperate room and it's all good now Don't think he'll ever buy me ponies but he doesn't mind me buying them and shares my excitement when I find rare ponies.  That's all I need 

My friends know I collect ponies but also don't know to what extent it goes since I've never gotten around to showing them a pic of my pony room. Most of my friends are also into collecting toys though, so I assume they wouldn't think it's weird.

[hyenacub]

My siblings are bronies heh