It took nearly 19 years of parenthood, but I FINALLY have a kid who is interested in Star Trek - beyond only seeing the occasional movie. My youngest - aged 12 and a half - has started her long and joyful "trek" through Star Trek, starting with the original series. So far she's loving it. She was already a Doctor Who, Star Wars, and superhero fan, so the leap to Trek wasn't that huge, but still, I'm happy I finally get to share this with one of my kids. It is such a treat to be able to watch and discuss these episodes with a first time viewer. She may be the only one in the hemisphere.
Congratulations. My five year old nephew hasn't shown any interest in Star Trek, and only seems to have a passing interest in Star Wars. He does seem to be developing a thing for superheroes, particularly Batman. I'm satisfied he's embracing some aspect of geek culture anyway.
Great to see you have a buddy to watch with. My eleven year old son has been big on space opera since he was young, so he would watch, but within the last year he has been more interested in Star Trek than Star Wars. As much as the latter is more spectacular, he likes Star Trek stories better. And when Beyond came out, it became is favorite movie (until it was replaced by Dunkirk).
Those are great stories! I have been really lucky, in that both of my kids joined us in our Star Trek/Sci-Fi obsessions. Our daughter, who is now 22, went to a couple of conventions with me when she was young. I also got to take her to the Star Trek Experience in Las Vegas. We still talk about how awesome that trip was. Our son, who is 14, has been doing a total Trek watch with me. We've gone through TNG, VOY, and ENT. We are now at the end of season one of DS9. In a couple of weeks, I'm taking him to his first convention. I can't wait. The Next Generation, indeed.
I found that taking the kids to conventions when they're very young can be quite profitable. Most of the celebrities go out of their way to be nice to the kids. Some give them gifts of autographed photos or pose for pictures complimentary. Unfortunately my daughter is moving out of that cute little girl stage. I do have a lovely photo of her and Jonathan Frakes from a few years ago, though.
When I took my daughter, we had a photo op with Gates McFadden. My daughter went to sit down next to her, and the camera wouldn't work for some reason. Instead of running off to her green room (or whatever) Gates sat there and talked to her for about 5 minutes. Later during the Q&A session, my daughter stood up and raised her hand, and Gates told the entire auditorium "Everyone be quiet! My friend 1001001.1 has a question!"
Congratulations. Its great to share interests. My eldest is Dr Who obsessed, so its only a matter of time; I've already drawn attention to the Cyberman/Borg parallel. The other one likes trains, also good, and they both like my little pony, so even Mum is happy. Win win.
Yes, it's great to be able to share your interests with your kids as they grow. I met my wife through a historical recreation group (the SCA), so we already shared many geeky interests. As our daughters got older, we began introducing them to things we thought they'd enjoy -- select TOS & TAS episodes, Wonder Woman books for early readers, classic WB animation. We've followed their leads and interests over the years as we exposed them to favorite books, shows, movies, games, and other activities. Some they've taken to wholeheartedly, others haven't appealed to one or both of them (and they are undoubtedly individuals...). The Star Trek "Collective" DVD collections have been good to introduce them to all the series, and they've sampled more of the various series over time. One of the interesting developments has been watching them find their own areas of interest -- Japanese anime, the Yu-Gi-Oh! card game, cosplay. They watched more DC animation growing up, so were less familiar w/ the Marvel characters when the movies started coming out, but have quickly and enthusiastically caught up. Now, we all benefit -- we continue to introduce them to stuff we like (we're in the middle of a family B5 watch-through and a fantasy role-playing campaign, the xkcd webcomic, and I've loaned them Roger Zelazny's Amber books and Naomi Novik's Temeraire dragon novels) and they introduce us to things they've come to love (CLAMP's XXXHolic manga & anime, game- and science- related blogs and vlogs, and steampunk cosplay). We all recently enjoyed the big screen showing of The Wrath of Khan, and we'll all soon be attending the big screen premiere of RWBY season 5. One happy geeky family!
I just wanted to say that's awesome, I know I'm new here, but it is really hard sometimes not being able to discuss something like trek with someone you care about (family etc) when they are not a fan. Congrats to you both. =/\=
It's very exciting when your kids love what you love. Both of mine are casual Trek watchers - if I'm watching it, they will watch - but neither of them are interested beyond that. *shrug* They have other geeky interests, so I'll be happy with what I have.