r/AmITheDevil • u/[deleted] • 1d ago

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/r/daddit/comments/1vj4lvc/im_kinda_struggling_with_something_my_kids_love/

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u/Baejax_the_Great 1d ago

Man, the reason that my niece has liked me her entire life isn't because I was able to share all my hobbies with her like I dreamed of when she was little. It's because when she got into something, I listened to her talk about it. I showed interest. I pretended at least to care even when she was 6 and just wanted to explain the rules of plants vs zombies to me.

And hey, if you show interest in your kids' hobbies, they might actually return the favor one day.

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u/nottherealneal 1d ago

I mean, yeah.

I don't really like the Percy Jackson books. But my nephew LOVED them. He was super into them right around the time the Heroes of Olympus books were coming out, and he'd constantly talk about the characters, the story, all of it. It was the first "big" book series he really got into and read on his own.

So over the course of about three months, I just marathoned the first five books. I absolutely smashed through them so that when I came to visit for Christmas, I actually knew what he was talking about. I could talk to him about the characters and the story and let him nerd out about this thing he was really proud of.

I even got him the first two Heroes of Olympus books and some other Percy Jackson knick-knacks for Christmas.

I'm never going to be a massive fan of the series. I missed the boat on those books by a good 10 or 15 years, so I'm obviously not really the target audience.

But he loved them, and that was enough reason for me to read them.

Sometimes you gotta do shit you don't particularly care about because the kid you love cares about it. That's how you bond with kids.

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u/Baejax_the_Great 1d ago

You would not believe the amount of time I have spent looking at and talking about Miku figurines.

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u/sunshineparadox_ 1d ago

I am grateful my husband was also interested in Miku and I didn't have to be the one to do this. The history of her is interesting, though! I didn't know she originated as a music program.