I learned it from YOU, dad, OK? I learned it from you.
So, my wife and I have this ongoing discussion…
We’ve got three girls, ages 13, 6, and one in the middle somewhere. All three of the girls are into things that I’m into. Meghen, the oldest, loves to read D&D novels. She wants to go to Gen Con. Ellie is into Pokemon and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. We counted the other day and Ellie has 26 toy weapons. Abbie, the youngest, is probably the most girly-girl in the family, but she still begs almost weekly to play Dungeons and Dragons with me.
So, the ongoing discussion is this: our kids are, in some ways, socially outcast. To be sure, part of it has to do with their individual quirks and their own personalities. But the fact also remains that they just don’t share the same interests as other girls their age. So, is this my fault? Am I to blame for getting them into these “niche” hobbies? (To be fair, 6 million players in the US is hardly a “niche,” but that’s beside the point).
I say “No.” If I were into NASCAR, like our friend Jeff, my girls would probably be into NASCAR. As a matter of fact, Jeff and Holli do have two girls, and they are interested in NASCAR. If it were football, they’d be into football, and so on and so forth.
The fact of the matter is, if I’m at fault for my daughters’ interests, it is because they want to be like me. They like me, and they want to spend time with me. Most of the other girls in their classes have never heard of D&D. Most of them probably haven’t heard that much about NASCAR either.
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