Adventures in Parenting for Fans and Other Interested Parties

Your soon to be three year old protests the repair you've made to her favorite PJs because the new button doesn't say

Pokemon

Like the other two.

ANyone know where in the world I can find small metal buttons that say Pokemon on them?

smallages.blogspot.com

A blog that suggests suitable children's music that you'll like too. :)

My sports mad 8 year old has discovered, through SI Kids, the wonderful and engaging world of online fantasy sports - in particular the salary cap game(s).

He is mad to play more, and more complex ones than the Sports Illustrated Kids website offers. It turns out that many of these games in the wider internet world require a) that you be at least 13, and b) pay. We have used both these facts to stave off participation. This has led him into wider and wider link clicking in search of a game we would approve of. This we are not keen on, for obvious reasons.

If his dad or I had any interest in playing with him, it would solve the problem - but we don't. The entire subject makes my ears bleed with boredom and concentrating on it is nearly impossible for me, and while his dad is a serious baseball fan, he leans way more toward attending games or playing himself than playing the fantasy version on line.

But, and that's the rub, 8 yo's obsessed, and I'd like to support his enthusiasm. If only he was content with the pre-vetted (sort of anyway) SI kids version things would be fine, but he's a math geek on top of everything else so the far more complicated rules and math of the 'mature' versions also totally grab him. Another interest I would, for obvious reasons, be happy to encourage.

Anyone here have any experience with the world of fantasy sports and online fantasy sports gaming? Or could point me to web/support pages for it? I tried googling for parent + fantasy sports, and all the variations I could think of, but turned up nothing. I think that if I could find the right game, dad *might* be talked into playing/supervising one season's worth of obsession - but I'm going to have to find it myself. Thus, I'm turning to you for help!

Thanks,

Nell

makesmewannadie is running a poll about fandom, children, and work - if you get a chance, go give her some more data points. . .

LOL

My daughter is very proactive in her roleplay - she's even started a few things that have become 'fanon' and she was laughing. "I started all of that, but only a few people know it. I don't feel the need to have to tell people that I was the first one to do it, but it's kind of cool to just know that's what happened. You know?"

I had to laugh. I know ADULTS who feel the need to point out what they 'started' - they don't have the wisdom of a 12 year old.

*sniff* I'm so proud.

Hi, I just posted the following disjointed thougthts in my journal and it occurred to me that they might be appropriate here. I apologize in advance if they're not. : )

I have been rethinking the role of the domestic realm lately. In my youth a number of influences caused me to devalue domesticity. Historically, beginning perhaps with the Greeks, domesticity was relegated to the "private," while the "public," civic realm was viewed as a higher sort of sphere. Women of course were kept within the private household to carry out domestic duties, and men, as full citizens, were allowed to interact publicly.

Hannah Arendt, a 20th century political theorist, broke this take on the human condition down a little further. She divided human action into three levels: labor of the body (the sustaining of life itself), work of the hands (the solid things we build), and action - the political interaction of human beings. This division is strictly hierarchical as each level raises us from animal to fully human. Each level also takes us from the domestic and private to the public. Historically, those levels also "rise" from female to male.( Read more... )

This community has had fairly infrequent postings, but those that I have seen have mostly been about setting boundaries between our fannish activities and our kids. We've discussed how to keep some of our fannish pursuits away from children's eyes, who to explain without explaining too much, etc. I think those are reasonable things to discuss and boundary setting is important.

Still, there's another side. It's just sooooooo lovely to share fandom with one's children. In the past few days I've re-watched 4 Star Wars movies with my kids, watched some songvids with them, and read my youngest a fanfic bedtime story.

More details on my journal at http://www.livejournal.com/users/mofic/11467.html

I'd love to hear how other community members do share fandom with children.

I just came across this community from a meta list. I was interested in how people reconcile the two parts of life. My interest in Harry Potter is hardly a secret to my family - but the depth and breadth of my, er, love is pretty well hidden. That is, I can answer trivia questions on the first five books with breathtaking ease -that's OK. But confessing my addiction to 50-part Harry/Draco NC-17 epics posted on Livejournal - can't do it.

At the moment I just keep everything separate. We have little separate areas on the computer, and I'm the main user. But I bookmark stories and recs. so that I don't lose them and from time to time I do worry that either my son or my husband is going to stumble over the links and be totally squicked. DH is fairly understanding but I doubt he'd get it. He doesn't get chick flicks either. How do other people deal with this? The fanfic love that dare not speak its name?

I just joined this community, having found it on a link from fanthropology. I have three kids. We live in NYC. I coparent with my ex, the kids' other mother.

I discovered fanfic in 2000 after the first X-Men movie came out. I thought it was this wonderful creative enterprise that my comics-loving, writer-aspiring son would love, so I went looking for some stories for him. Then I got interested in the kind of stories you don't bring home to your 12-year-old. Then I started writing. I write X-Men slash fanfiction, the kind we used to call NC-17 before the MPAA was breathing down our necks. Explicit sex, some disturbing themes.

I'd love to hear how others deal with fandom and their kids, particularly if they are engaged in fannish pursuits that are not appropriate for children. Particularly if they are involved in fandoms that interest children. I'm pretty content with how I've navigated that stormy sea so far, but I'm always looking for suggestions and BTDT advice.

I came up with this list for helpinghands, but think it should be cross-posted here as well.

( all_ages )

Cross-posted to my own journal…

Rainy weekends make for movie days and since we’d just watched the Incredibles again, it was time for a Mommy movie and I pulled Fellowship of the Ring out of the DVD closet of doom. Bear (almost five) grabbed my arm and said, “Okay, we can watch it, but only if we watch the movie and not the people talking” and made a Very Stern Face at me. So yes, we watched the movie and not the commentaries.

Everyone’s a critic.

I just wanted to link to a friend of mine. She's a quilter, it's the business she's just started up. But one of the quilts she does is for Spider-Man, and it's rather adorable. So I thought I'd pass on to those that might enjoy a look.

A sample of Spin's Shalee Creations.

A little girl I know, the seven year old niece of a good friend, is in the hospital with spinal meningitis. Apparently it "doesn't look hopeful." She's such a sweet and kind little girl, an only child. This just breaks me up. It happened very quickly, just this morning.

Anyway, give your little ones extra hugs and kisses tonight.

Hi everyone! I am so glad I found this community, it's right up my alley! I found it in a roundabout way via daily_snitch, r_becca and magnolia_mama. I'm a working mom, married, and have an 8-year-old daughter (aka DD) and a 3-year-old son (aka DS). Life is certainly an adventure with those two...so I'm very happy to talk about parenting issues. Right now we're working on toilet training for DS and gifted/talented issues for DD.

I became interested in the Harry Potter fandom a few months ago thanks to DD. I'm a closet Remus fangirl and ship Remus/Sirius mainly, though I'm not averse to Remus/Tonks. I read mostly, though I'm trying to write a bit as well. (After kids are in bed of course. And long after I should be in bed too.)

I am so glad to see that there is a list of kid-friendly fanfic recs in the works. That had been my initial focus in entering the HP fandom in the first place, trying to find stories suitable for DD to read while waiting for the next HP installment (less than 6 months to go, yay!). I've found some that I might let DD read, though they're few and far between. I've found others that I think would be suitable for young teens too. Only within the HP fandom though, I can't speak for others. (Though for me such a rec list raises a question: what exactly defines "kid-friendly", aside from a G/PG (sometimes PG-13) rating?)

Glad to meet you all!

Not sure how much I will be able to contribute, but...employed mum of two boys aged nearly 16 and nearly 14 - the older one has his own Internet access so needing to keep an eye there, though he mostly just wastes time with Webcomics and at GAFF - where we occasionally brush by each other with veiled domestic snark!

Giles fan (hooray), also ex-K/Ser and gen Trek fic and interested in Stargate SG1, Highlander and a few others in a non-participatory way.

All the family know I read and write fic - older son has read all my sub-R fics. We discuss fic, both good and bad (he can spot a Sue on sight, and has roleplay fun hunting them down at GAFF) and fandom issues. He likes Jetwolf's BtVS season 8.

Occasionally wonder if any of this will ever get back to school or other parents, but probably not, as parents in general are patently uncool subjects of conversation. Slightly more concerned that he is setting up an RP forum with a buddy where they will explicitly have "no fixed morality". Hope, and have commented already, that they keep fantasy and reality good and separate...

I've been encouraged to see here that I'm not the only parent who struggles with sharing my interests with my daughter. I'm always on the lookout for kid-friendly HP fanfics and seldom find them. Luckily, r_becca has put out a rec list for just such stories, and I see from the comments that someone is trying to create an entire archive of fics appropriate for six to twelve year old children. This makes me happy!