Have your parents ever supported your special interest?

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Yes always.

A lot of the time they did, but sometimes they got kind of annoyed with them. When i was really little and got obsessed with different tv shows and movies they were always cool with it. My mom would even make me costumes of the characters. In middle school during my Pokemon obsession, it was obviously over-the-top for someone my age, so i think they were a little frustrated and wanted me to get more normal interests. With my reptile stuff, at first it was hard to convince them to let me have any.. Neither of them liked reptiles at all. I pay for all the reptile stuff myself, but for a long time they would get on me about saving my money for more important things and getting interests that are more "normal." They've started warming up to it a little more, though. My mom bought me a subscription to Reptiles magazine(and actually reads most of them herself, too), and my dad always going with me to the Reptile expo they have twice a year in Raleigh. The other day when we saw a Sulcata Tortoise in a pet shop, my mom started talking about what she read about them and almost sounded like she wanted to get one!

Yeah.

I remember my mother driving me to the indoor shooting range back in my pistol days for several years each weekend (a 40 minute drive), and being the target of my one-sided talking about such. It was the same way for all of my interests as I was growing up. It's still the same way.

I had the exact opposite of supporting parents for my interests. I had a controlling stepfather that deliberately forbid me from doing any of my interests because none of them coincided with his own. If I (or my brother) were interested or wanted to do something he also did not want to do, it wasn't going to happen. I wasn't even allowed to read my books for cryin' out loud. I couldn't game, and I couldn't research any number of sciences.

It was football, sports, outdoors, cars, booze, and girls. That was all we were allowed to even really talk about in his presence. I hate all of those except women, and I hate talking about women as if they're just sexual objects (which is what the conversation was with him). Luckily my brother liked most of those, so it wasn't that bad for him.

It was a very unpleasant 13 years. Felt like a 13 year war against an oppressor I couldn't possibly win against. Then I got the chance to move out at 17 and I snatched it faster than a bolt of lightning.

Off topic <waves at Coldblooded> Greetings fellow Carolinian.

On topic, my parents usually tolerated my interests (mainly because my brothers and i enjoyed the same things), but it seemed as though they had no intention of getting involved with them. For instance, when my brothers and I got older, we started the whole video game and CCG craze. While our parents are no strangers to computers, they didnt like us playing games or "throwing money away" on CCGs. We really wanted them to join us in our "little world" as it were, but they always used some excuse like, "Its too complicated." Ok . . . two grown adults, both with bachelor's degrees, and something is "Too complicated" for them . . . what the hell? We had to put effort into learning this stuff, what's their excuse? That aside, i wanted to get into card game design (seeing as how thats my only real interest, and its been hard as all hell getting a job), but no one really wants to support or help me with it.

My parents took me to see Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs because I liked "Heigh Ho" but we ended up leaving because I got scared.

My mom bought me a Little Mermaid sweater and shirt and the Ariel doll when I was six. She also bought me a 101 Dalmatian shirt when I was 11. She has also gotten me Barbie stuff and I got a bunch of them for Christmas that first year I got my first Barbie doll. She also got me a Winnie the Pooh doll. She even stopped in Spokane for me just so I can go on that huge slide that was shaped like a wagon when I was 17. Then we walked around the park and oh boy, my first B&J location. She even took me near the cement factory that was in the movie when I was 18.

Yes my parents supported my interests. When I was young I was interested in sciences so my dad and mon bought me a telescope and a microscope which were very awesome super cool!
I also was fascinated about modern combat airplanes (military fighters) so my dad bought me military airplanes scale models (one British reconnaissance plane and one F-16 variant C which at the time was very advanced craft). I glued the parts of the model togheter and then painted it (the best way is in fact paint the parts first and then glue them togheter!). When I had to decide which subject to study at college my mother and father discouraged me from studying physics or social sciences and encouraged me to study economics! Weird!

My parents were never made of money, but they were always supportive of my interests and still are to some extent. My father taught me to read and write when I was two -- this is the gift I value the most. My parents bought me a Sega Game Gear and an Atari ST when I wanted them (the Mega Drive was a family thing) -- they were always there for my interests in Thomas the Tank Engine, Ghostbusters, Tottenham (football), films and video games. I was always disappointed that I never got the GB firestation or the proton pack when I was a kid, but hey, you can't have everything.

Usually.

They provided me with many of mine.

I also 'inherited' some of theirs.

Always. For example, my special interests for the last eight or so years have been abnormal psychology, animal behavior and Law & Order: Criminal Intent. They really encouraged the learning, the same way they did for my other nerdy, much-loved interests when I was a child. And they got me all the available seasons of CI.