how we ended up on the dark side of pedagogy (I wanted to study that btw ).

Its not off topic but lingers with apsurd testimonies of each one of us, and our violent parents.
The focus is on them and their blazing reaction in affect when they saw you or still do looking
Can they empathise at all? is it real to expect that?

@Marek I can so relate to your story, almost the same. The way I explained to my mother was: it is like playing a video game, but instead of sitting alone in front of the screen I play a game that comes from a book (my mother is a sucker for anything book related) with my friends. She accepted it, dough reluctantly

So about a decade later, when I was away on college, my mother came to visit with me for a few days. My friends came over for a night of D&D and persuaded my mother to join in as one of the NPS's She got into the game so much it was hilarious, I was glad she had so much fun.

But that is not the funny part. At one point, her character killed an ogre by hitting him with a magic sword. She celebrated by calling my dad and sad: Gilbert, I waked an ogre on the head with a magic stick and now he is dead! I'm so happy!

Initial confusion was hilarious, my father calls my mother "Conan the magic stick" to this day

Hahahaha! That is hilarious!
I honestly cannot tell you what my mom would do if she ever joined one of our sessions. I want to say I can imagine her getting into it like your mom but that wouldn't be true. I don't know, I'm trying to think up how that would look like but imagination fails me

My parents gladly finance and support my cosplaying, they see it as a practice and business opportunity for me since I study costume design
As for the RPGs I do have a hilarious story to share, not as hilarious as Feline's but a funny one never the less.
When I was about 12 years old, I was painfully awkward and had little to no friends. One of them took me to couple of WH40KRPG sessions and I decided I want to play. Couple of months into my playing (and me trying to share that world with my parents), my father was worried to what are we doing and he voiced his concerns to my mother.
Her response: At least she has some friends now. Better weirdo friends than no friends at all. I was worried that she will be a lone weirdo, but now she has some company
Nickname stuck, my father calls me : The lone weirdo

Immortalbae you are among lucky ones. I was never quite fit to be one trully. Thats why i have ex-wife with our kid, living separatelly. She is great mom but im lame dad, I face that. BUT when weekend comes I see the kid buzzing around me becouse she see me as her buddy and I like it. Her mother is quite opposite, rigid and well disciplined but shallow in that spirit department hahahaaa

I think i can manage to remain buddy with my kid. To provide her many treats and feedback from adult world, wrapped in that thin foil names imagination. endless imagination.

After I took this to read i was weaping becouse it reminded me how i wanted to be in familly.
www.leadertreks.org/life-cosplay-mom/

I know this topic should be about cosplay but we have already strayed so far into rpgs that maybe the topic should be renamed into "Amusing responses to alternative hobbies by family and friends"
As for my personal experience with D&D (the only cosplays I did were children masquerade parties when I was a wee boy and maybe a couple of Halloween parties in recent years) it was mostly positive. When me and my brother first started playing rpgs (Warhammer fantasy rpg to be exact) our whole family was delighted, especially my grandfather who was a defectologist and his longtime friend and colleague who is a child psychiatrist. They were amazed with this game we were playing and thought it was an incredible way for kids to develop social skills and nurture their imagination. More than a decade later my grandfather is far less supportive, he constantly teases me how someone pushing thirty shouldn't be playing silly make believe games, but it's mostly done in good humor. It's sort of an inside joke between us

I guess RPG's can be rally fascinating from the children psychiatrist or teacher point of view. I have found some studies on the subject of RPG's and learning capabilities that all state that "playing social games that require a child to use a lot of imagination while in the same time develop an interest in some subjects can improve learning abilities and social skills"
I have to find them and paste the links here, so if anyone has troubles with parental disapproval can shut them up

The benefits of this nurturment in famillies are allways obvious. Only head-headed noobs of parents are permitting themselfs to spoild relationship with its creative kid.Hm well, i would not hesitate to edit that, if this continues

As long as I don't do drugs or get myself in trouble or health risk, my folks just don't care about my hobbies. I have an allowance and a part time job while studying, so I can finance my geek and goth needs

Some people can be studied, i mean it. Like my acquaintance from Con. where we met.
She is single mom with more character than many guys I know.
Everytime she approves creative time with her kids on top of daily chorus, school etc.
Wonderfull person..