What Does Your Family Think About Your Hobby?

My grandparents collected but not my parents generation. They see it as a old hobby but valuable. My dad collects non Christmas odd practical nutcrackers and my mom collects toys so I'm kinda seen as the sane one.

My parents were always supportive of course because they could see the education I was giving myself being interested in coins and really a teenager could have worse hobbies than collecting coins.

My current girlfriend however has a very odd perspective that I never really expected from her. She has ZERO interest in my coins. Doesn't want to see them. Doesn't want to see the new items I add to my collection. Really doesn't care about any facts of information I might have to share about them. However, she has expressed many times how she really does respect my hobby because its not a waste of my money. She has equated it to her love for purses and sunglasses where she loves buying them but they are worth nothing to no one but her after she pays hundreds of dollars for them. She likes how I collect something worth hundreds of dollars that I can also sell for hundreds of dollars later if I wanted to to another collecter.

Again for her I found that to be an oddly poignant and accurate opinion.

My family don't care about my hobby, my parents, brothers and sister have no idea I collected coins. A few friends know I collect because I talk about it and they sometime ask for advice and see if I can help selling theirs when needed.

My family supports it. My wife is annoyed by it. The paraphanalia associated with collecting can sometimes be scattered throughout the house when I've been on a bender. My young sons collect with me. My friends know I collect but have no idea how seriously. They mostly think I collect Buffalo nickels and wheat pennies, when, in fact I'm in the hobby about as deep as one can get with my means. I fall into the savy collector/investor category. Making good deals on quality coins so that the potential to make money (even though I never intend to sell) is there. The history, the chase, the find, the beauty, the value, the deal, the "it's never complete" are all things I love about the hobby. It's an escape and a continuation/extension of my childhood that just keeps on going. It's a healthy and productive way for me to geek out.