Made to feel like your special interests were bad?

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I've always liked things that could be considered "immature" for someone my age, like Cars, My Little Pony, stuffed animals, etc...and when I was younger, I liked watching this show called "Dragontales..." My dad was okay with it, my stepmom was okay with it, my mom tolerated it, but my stepdad would make comments like, "By the time you're 13, you should stop watching that, etc" (I actually watched it till I was 14, so ha)

In addition, I was given flak over my My Little Ponies and stuffed animals...when my younger half - sisters messed around with my MLP stuff (most of it vintage, so my indignation was perfectly legit) and I complained, I was told, "Maybe if you didn't play with toys intended for little kids, etc." So, I never felt like my possessions were respected.

When I was about 9 years old, my school counselor and mom decided to "break me" of the "habit" of sleeping with a stuffed animal....my mom would sort of "frisk" me for any stuffed animals I might be hiding under my jammas and made me sleep with a heart - shaped pillow instead of my favorite plushies. My sleep was even more disrupted than usual and I was frightened, lonely, and miserable as I lay there by myself in the dark without a plushie. Eventually I outsmarted both my mom and counselor by hiding a plushie under my pillow at night and taaking it out after I'd gone upstairs to bed. Luckily, my dad didn't enforce the same rules at his house, (my parents were divorced) so I felt safe sleeping there every other week.

The thing was, I looked around, and saw people my age and much, much older walking around with Care Bears/MLP/Strawberry Shortcake shirts on, Winnie the Pooh backpacks, backpacks in the shape of Mario and Disney characters, taking stuffed animals to sleepovers and to bed, etc...so why was it okay for everyone else to like that sort of thing, but not me? That's what I always wanted to know.

I'm in college now, tho, so no one bothers me about the sort of stuff I like anymore....if they do, I just tune them out; I'm tired of hearing it and of the double standard I was always held to.

Anyone else ever had to put up with this?

I was made to feel bad for liking 101 Dalmatians and being obsessed with it. Then I wanted it out of my head but I couldn't stop obsessing over it. I recall this movie was popular in 1997 and my mother didn't like me being obsessed with it.

Then when I was obsessed with the movie Titanic when I was 12 and 13, mom didn't like my obsession about it so when the movie came out, she said I could only watch it once a month. I also read books about the ship in bookstores. Kids in school didn't like that obsession either despite it being popular. Lot of teens are obsessed with it and I see lot of Titanic fans online and they all say they are obsessed with the movie and they also think about it all day long and day dream about it.


I've noticed with us aspies when we do things that are normal because lot of people do it, especially when lot of people are obsessed with something too we are obsessed about or when we like something lot of people like, it's a crime. Maybe it has to do with how we do it and we tend to go to more extreme and we do things more often lot of people do.


I see nothing wrong with sleeping with stuffed animals or plushies. Some people think that is bad because they think you're too old for that. They would probably have problems with everyone else doing it too and also think they shouldn't either. Plus I am also sure they do not like other people wearing cartoon character clothes or backpacks.


Now I don't let anyone make me feel bad anymore about my interests or obsessions.

I was made to feel bad about my obsession with real life cars when I was a child. I never go why. It's not like I was on drugs, doing something to get someone pregnant or getting drunk. I mean, so what if I liked to take apart things to learn how they worked. They were my things and this is how I enjoyed them. My parents wanted me to be someone I wasn't- someone highly social with a girlfriend, and fashion sense who was into sports and got good grades. Sorry but I wasn't the stereotypical preppie kid and had no desire to be. Just give me some tools, money and time in a junkyard and I was happy.

When I was a teenager, I was obsessed with a TV series called Bad Girls and my mum banned me from talking about it. She never used to like me talking about anything i was obsessed with.