What are your family's feelings about your pony obsession?

[Bibinettepony]

I can say I got a supportive family  My mother understands my love for them and find some of them cute  . My husband understands my passion and is quite respectful about it  . My sister does NOT love ponies BUT she offers (like my mother and hubby ;o) ) me ponies as gifts for B-day or Xmas and even helps me find new G4 in shops I can not go  The rest of my family knows and find this cute as well as the few friends who know about my collection/ passion 

[LadyMoondancer]

They don't give me grief about pony collecting, and when I was a young teen my mom drove me around to thrift stores, and my sister once gave me a big box of ponies for Christmas. But it's not something they will ask after if I'm talking to them on the phone, nor have they given me ponies as gifts in recent years.

I guess I'd say they accept my pony collecting more than they're supportive of it.  Like, they're happy I have a hobby, but they don't pretend to be interested in it.  (To be fair, I don't initiate things by talking about ponies either.)  Which I am fine with, I mean I'm not super interested in my sister's collection of Depressionware glass either.

[Pierlala]

Eventhough I'm an adult ans live on my own with my son. My mother thinks it's getting out of hand. She said to me a couple of times that it's becoming an addiction. It's rather annoying to hear it. My sister thinks the same. They sort of approve of it in a way. But they have second thoughts about it. And both of them have no real hobbies or like to collect things like I do. I don't really care. But it's never nice to hear other people "complain" about it. Cause it's something I really enjoy and I'm not bothering anyone with it.

PS: My boyfriend eventhough he lives in a different country, is VERY supportive of my pony collecting. He understands it fully and when we're together he helps me wash their hair and condition them haha. He makes me feel very comfortable. He also keeps an eye out for them and we talk about it often. I even got him so far that he started watching Friendship is Magic recently. I'm not much into G4 myself but I do enjoy the show!

[CottonTALE]

Almost all of my family is indifferent. They see that it's something I like and therefore it makes me happy. Being on the autism spectrum, I have narrowed focusses for my interests, so I try to incorporate ponies subtly into other areas of my life to motivate me. For example, since I started my new job three weeks ago in a hospital, every Friday I buy a blind bag for my locker and keep them in there (so far I have Lily Valley, Nurse Snowheart and Prism Glider of the Wave 9 Blind Bags in there)

My boyfriend however, is majorly supportive of me collecting ponies. I actually met him through the arena a few years ago, and he collects ponies as well

[Tak]

If you just count my daughter, she's awesome. She wants all the ponies. If you count the rest they think I'm crazy, but I am so who cares what they have to say about it. You didn't have a crazy option on the checklist.

[Taffeta]

My family are fine with it. My Dad came with me to see Wondermint's collection when it was in Dudley, because he knows Dudley and I can't navigate to save my life (literally). My sister also collects and is very protective of her 350ish ponies. She also kidnaps mine regularly when she's at home. My Mum remembers watching MLP with me when I was a kid and she actually knows still some of the names. She bought me Windy and her memory of what Windy looked like on card was absolutely accurate even before we had any pictures of the UK one MOC. She is very sad BHS is closing because it was the place she bought that first Windy!

My friends are ok with it. I don't hide it. I have one friend at uni who is around the same age as me and she also had MLP as a kid -she still has hers somewhere, stored away in the attic back home. Another of my friends think they're quirky and cool and keeps joking about coming to sleep in a 'pony room' one day if she comes visit (when I FINALLY sort out where I'm living, though I doubt I can afford an extra room at present!). One of my closest RL friends I met through collecting Jem 15 years ago - she is also into MH and she also tells me when she sees pony stuff. Recently she got all excited because she found the little mini Firefly and book in Forbidden Planet. Apparently Firefly is now on her desk at work.

So I'm really lucky. Back when we were kids, Gran and Grandad often bought us ponies, and even when we got older Grandad (my last grandparent) was always interested in what we found at the carboot sale (he died when I was 17).

My parents have a few ponies of their own which they acquired for sentimental reasons. My Mother has a Windy. My Dad, Lucky and Tropical Breeze

My mother's perspective is that MLP has been a positive and important part of my life for a very long time and she sees it as a good thing. When I stopped for a while as a kid, it was my mother who said, put them in the attic and don't sell them, see how you feel later. She was so right to do that It was also my parents who first suggested we try carboot sales to find second hand ponies, when they were no longer in stores.

I love my family. They rock.

[Pokeyonekenobie]

My family doesn't care what I decide to collect.  As long as it doesn't expand outside of my space I can buy whatever I want.  But they're also kind of supportive about it.  They know I like to do customs so if they find them at the local thrift store, and they're not overpriced, they'll usually pick them up for me.  I even got my younger brother trained to identify the different generations. 

My older sister didn't want most of her childhood collection but her daughter is currently in a pony stage so she picked which ones she wanted her daughter to have and let me hold onto the rest of them and if her daughter is looking for a particular pony she asks me to try and find it for her.  My nieces and nephews love that I have so many fun toys in my room and that's part of why I'm the favorite aunt.

I have a few close friends that will even pick them up for me if they find one at their thrift store. (They generally get really excited when it's in bad bait condition because they like to see what I do to fix it up.)  And they've even commissioned me to make them customs.

I don't know that my extended family really knows that I collect them, but I don't care if they know or not.  And if they didn't approve, it wouldn't change whether or not I bought them.  In fact, if they gave me a hard time about it I would probably post a picture every day on FB of a piece of my collection just to annoy them.  But then, I'm a little evil that way.

[Galactica]

That is a complicated question. 

My wife is fine that I like ponies- and will even buy me a pony for a holiday if I drop a lot of not-so-subtle hints and possibly a link...

But she is not supportive of the fact that I have too many ponies and in general "too much stuff."  Because I don't just have ponies, I have other things too... 

We have had to compromise and the amount of house space/storage space I get for my "collections" is constantly being negotiated, and is definitely a sore spot for both of us. 

[BuckinghamAlice]

In the house it's just me and my mom.  She knows, she's cool with it.  My extended family doesn't know, they'd judge.  But whatever.  They judge literally everything I do, lol.

[Pinkandpurplepanda]

    All of my friends and family who know I collect ponies are fine with my hobby. I have collected different things like stamps and Pokemon cards my whole life. Although this may be because a lot of my friends and family have collections of other things and at least understand the interest in collecting something. When I first started really collecting in high school my parents thought it was weird but I think they're used to it now. The only concerns they have are making sure ponies come after purchasing more important things, and that they don't take up a huge amount of space.

    As for my two year old sister, she's fully supportive, she loves getting my doubles as random gifts.

[BlushingBlue]

My family is supportive, but not invested. My MIL is good with garage sales and eBay, so she'll often get me a vintage pony item for my birthday or christmas. My mom isn't quite so savvy, but if I specifically point her at something on her city's craigslist, she'll happily pick it up on my behalf. She used to spoil me with G3s when they were in stores, and my brother used to buy me G3s too. It's harder for them now, since I don't collect G4s, and they're not quite willing/able to hunt those elusive G1s.

My husband is a little too supportive sometimes. He'll often encourage me to travel farther or spend more for ponies, and I have to be the voice of reason. He doesn't collect himself, but he does take pride in knowing a few names here and there, and he has his favorites. He's definitely the one I can talk about ponies with the longest before his eyes glaze over.

Even distant relations and random acquaintances have never given me grief over my interest in ponies. I think I'd be stunned if anyone tried to tease me maliciously about my collection.

[Aflame]

my OH is on here and doesn't mind the ponies he come to pony con with me and watches the cartoon and will buy me ponies from the con as its usually near my birthday my in laws don't mind as i could be spending the money on drugs /drink/smoking or gambling but i would rather spend it on ponies 

[Barnacle_lady]

My family and non pony friends are ok with it. They won't buy me ponies but they always want to see the ponyroom when they visit me If I went to a meeting or convention they are always interested to hear if I got myself something nice and had a fun time over there. I find that very valuable.

[Chibiskittles]

between supportive (my mom looks for pony fabric for me! and has bought me a pony or two from etsy for Christmas) and sometimes mean (my sister teases me about it ...in only the way sisters can xD)

[Radiance]

Mister Radiance is perfectly ok with my collection, if a little amused. The few friends that know about it think it's fun, and I have one friend who has expressed interest in attending the fair one year. My in laws don't know much about it, as they already think I'm weird and whenever I've worn a MLP shirt around them they've laughed at me a little for being so childish. But who cares what they think; I'm pushing 40 and I look cute as hell in my MLP swag!