Friends/Family who support collecting?

[ponyqueen]

My close family who know are very supportive, and they help me find ponies!


Husband (helps build pony rooms, encourages my pony art, supports my solo international pony hunting vacation, co-hosts pony meets with me, accompanies me to pony fair etc)
Sister (actively collecting with me)
Father (drives to store to store in his town trying to track down Starlight Glimmer!)
Brother (finds ponies in shops, buys them for me)

[DazzleKitty]

My whole family is supportive of my collection. My brother who goes to flea markets always hunts for them for me. My dad has put together pony shelves for me. My parents and brothers don't think I'm crazy for collecting and that's a plus. My coworkers are supportive too and I've gotten ponies as presents at work. I've rarely had any negative reactions to my collecting and if someone doesn't like it, that's there problem.

The recently acquired boyfriend is also entirely supportive. Which is great, because the ex before him told me I was wasting my money.

[hathorcat]

My brothers eyes glaze over if I start talking about them (the same way mine do when he starts talking about aeroplanes ) but he does think its a fun hobby. My mum tells everyone...and I mean everyone...about the ponies She is very supportive I am always very grateful to have family who allow me to have such a wierd and wonderful hobby without question.

[Galactica]

My sisters and my mom are great- they buy me pony stuff (and doll stuff) at every opportunity- 

I even got my sister's kids into ponies

My "little" sister is the best- not just for ponies but for everything- we find cool stuff for each other all the time- I love it!!!!

I do wish my wife was as great as my family- but I guess we all value/like different things. 

[zombienixon]

As far as family goes, my sister and her husband know I collect, and they're fine with it. My sister actually likes it since it makes me easier to shop for.  My Mom and Stepdad would likely be alright with it, but I prefer to keep it from them, especially since my collection has gotten much larger.  There was a time a couple of years ago that I told my Mom I liked MLP, but that was when my collection was small enough that all of it could fit on my computer desk.

With my friends, most of them are/were bronies, so they don't really care at all.  The only thing that would really surprise them would be the size of it.  Most of them don't really collect much of any merchandise, except for one who has a lot of custom stuff and collects blind bags.

Outside of that, I wouldn't ever even mention MLP.

[vira]

my mom, dad, and brother know; theyre kind of confused by my collection but arent against it! my dad even picked out some rainbow power ponies for my birthday last year :'-)

my friends also know, and they like my collection! one of them is also a collector, so we'll exchange pony gifts on christmas and other holidays! :-)

[Tak]

No specific stories. My daughter is always ready for more ponies. She helps me spot them on lower shelves. She remembers all the names and is helping me remember which we're looking for. She's amazing and cute. If I open something without her she gets upset.

[scarletjul]

My best friend bought me my first G3, Merriweather.  My sister picked up a bag of g1s for me at a thrift store last year.  And my mom has been know to buy me ponies while thrifting and even on trips.

They've all been supportive. 

[pickwick_pirate]

My mum is very supportive. When ever I get a new g1 or 3 she asks me about it (her favorite Gens). This Christmas just gone she made an effort to find as much MLP merch as she cod for gifts.
My dad doesn't seem to have an opinion, he's mostly OK. Sometimes he says nasty things but I know he doesn't mean it really. He's a complete Tolkien geek any way (as am I), he he's in no position to judge. My brother is cool with it, sometimes he tells me I'm sad, but again we know deep down he is an utter geek, but he is so concerned about what other people think of him he wouldn't admit it. I think that's why he sometimes makes fun of me.

None of my friends have ever acted negatively. Again I mostly surround myself in more geeky or just open minded circles, so when I tell them, they tend to just say it's cool.

[xeevee]

My family will tease me about it, but not in a serious mean way.  They still buy me ponies and stuff too.  As do my friends.  I mean obviously I don't know what they say behind my back, but to my face all my old friends are quite supportive.  They also buy me ponies as gifts, tell me when they see new things in the store.  Share photos of cool customs or cakes they see with me on facebook.  I have never felt the need to hide my collecting.

[Aflame]

my other half(charmer)  is always supportive and has been to ever pony con i have and paid for half of a paradise estate for me :)he has also got me ponies from ebay to i love my charmer !   xaflame

[reanna-mator]

My parents think it's neat... my dad loves garage sales and in the past has found me a few ponies. He's even good at telling which ones are genuine Hasbro ponies. My husband teases me a bit, but it's all in good fun, and he never gets on my back for even a large purchase of ponies. ... and he watches Friendship is Magic with me.

[Elfpony]

I'm surrounded by enablers!  My roommate and best friend drives me to the pony fair every year, and mana my booth for me while I run around buying more stuff.  And through the year she drives me all over town looking for thrift store ponies. I think she actually enjoys that hunt as much or more than I do.

My mom still gets me pony stuff for Xmas and birthdays every year, and she will also check in thrift stores for me.

Elf


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[Taffeta]

Lots. My sister is a pony fan too, which is nice, we grew up with them together and such. At the moment where she is living has no space for ponies, nor has she extra cash for them, so hers are in storage but she kidnaps mine whenever we're both home. I have had to warn her about Paradise several times, but the pony still disappears into her dressing gown pocket. (She is 28, by the way. No excuse for being kid sister any more!)

My Mum and Dad are also really supportive. They used to take us to carboot sales when they were on and we were kids, and they'd always be keeping their eyes open. Both remember bits and pieces from our childhood about when and where certain ponies were bought, though Mum more than Dad.

But Dad tries his best. He collects puppets and he understands the enthusiasm for collecting. He also finds the flatfoots fascinating. He actually owns a few of them still, I think.

Two stories with my Dad...firstly, when we were younger, we went to one of the local carboot sales. On these days Mum and Dad would be hunting as much as Naynie and I, but usually they alerted us if they found anything. This one day, we'd had a good trip - I think we had Honeycomb, Baby Ribbon, Baby Lemon Drop...anyhow, we got back to the car and, as we were strapping ourselves in, Dad turned round from the driver's seat and waved something yellow and red at us.

"I found this", he said, "If its one you girls need, you can share it."

The pony was Pretty Vision. She needed work on her hair but she was a pony that, at the time, we didn't have and didn't even see. How Dad found her and we didn't may have something to do with his radar for red and yellow things, though. So our Pretty Vision is thanks to my Dad's hunting skills.

The second tale comes from last year, when Wondermint's collection was on display in Dudley. I was planning to go, and Dad said he'd come with me. I know part of the reason he did was because I don't know Dudley, and he is from that area - I have mentioned before but I cannot navigate and I think he worried that I'd not find it on my own (a logical assumption). So he came too. We had a nice day in Dudley, and at the museum, and Dad actually got really into the pony display thing. As we were looking around the room, he suddenly pointed to something in a display case and then, with a very confident smile, he said, "There's Windy."

He was right. And I was very impressed, because, in the middle of a big display case full of ponies, he had not only managed to pick out my first pony, but name her, correctly.

So while my Mum knows more about the ponies than my Dad does, they're both really good at supporting the hobby.

In terms of friends, I am very open about my collecting now. Most of my friends are ok with it or don't care either way. One friend I got into a discussion with recently about the eighties. I told her I collected ponies and she was like, "oh, I loved them, I have a bunch of them back home still, in storage." So then we started talking really nostalgically about growing up in the 80s and all the cool shows and toys from back then.

[SunbeamV]

My mum is great about my collecting. She still surprises me with happy meals if I mention McD's has mlp, and my other main hobby is cosplay, so her take on my interests is very much "you could've gotten mixed up in far worse things than collecting toy horses and dressing up like cartoons" 

My friends and I have had some pretty, er, awful run ins with a particularly hateful local brony group, so they like to joke that my collecting habit is just me building an army to stage a takeover of that rude group someday.