Keeping it all in the family: How do you involve your kids and/or S.O. in the hobby with you?

[Daniel@R2R]

How do you involve your kids and/or S.O. in the hobby with you? My wife has moved from tolerating the hobby to being more casually interested, and my kids have gotten more and more interested in the reef hobby the older they get. My daughter in particular loves to go to the reef shows and stores with me. Both the kids name the fish and talk to them. I show them videos and have been teaching them about different fish species. How about you guys?

1) How involved are your family members in the reef hobby?
2) What are some ways they participate with you?

Here's a couple of pictures of my daughter from 9 years ago when I was first introducing her to the hobby.

 

[Rskiba]

My wife is very involved in the hobby but from an visual perspective. She doesn't want to understand water chemistry, tank monitoring or maintenance as much as what the tank looks like overall. So, I usually let her pick coral and fish and then we discuss if those choices are a good fit - why or why not. This way she is very involved with adding livestock and invested in seeing them thrive!

 

[EricR]

Take the kids to the LFS and let them enjoy the octopus, rays, and sharks,,, then bring them down by not buying them.

My daughters pick all my corals, so I have only zoas (5-6 colors) and a couple ricordea only,,, but I like the picks.
*plus I'm color blind so win/win

 

[Siberwulf]

I take the kids to the LFS and tell them to "ask mommy to take you to the car so she doesn't see the checkout process"

 

[Reefbuds]

I take every moment I can to teach my kids about the reef. Anytime we feed or I notice anything I try to call them over and show or inform them about it. Love it watching their reactions. Wife usually just nods and moves on when I talk about how things work within.. but she does love watching it.

 

[Tuan’s Reef]

My kids love my Reef Tank. When picking out new corals I ask for their opinions and love to hear what they have to say. They know all the inhabitants and corals. My wife is also getting more involved asking lots of questions. She already green lighted a bigger tank

 

[EagleEye121]

1) How involved are your family members in the reef hobby?
2) What are some ways they participate with you?

Similar story to yours… my wife was casually interested and mostly just enjoyed watching the tank. The tough part is the tank is in my basement/office and she only comes down occasionally.

The thing that helped me the most to get her more interested was involving her in stocking the tank. I’d give her a handful of different fish and coral I wanted/the tank could hold, and let her pick from that selection. She also likes going to the LFS with me to pick stuff out. Over time it really grew on her and now I fully trust her to take care of the tank when I’m away.

She even came downstairs this morning actually to have me “quiz” her on the different fish and coral species in the tank. She’s gotten surprisingly good at it.

She’s gone from “oh that’s pretty cool” to full face to glass like me

 

[Keko21]

Absolutely! We just started our tank and my two daughters (5 and 3yo) love it. My wife was shocked when we all went into Our LFS and my girls were shouting and pointing “Royal gramma!”, “PJ fish (pajama cardinals)!”, “puffer fish!” “Tang fish!”

 

[jdpiii3]

If they are going to be involved might as well go all in.

 

[Fish Think Pink]

Daughter is responsible for all fish names... When school wanted her to learn the periodic table, I was like (sort of as a joke... sort of not - diatom problem at the time and her dad was talking about it a lot) ... what most should you know - Silica ... heehee

Repetition, repetition, repetition seems to work... If they want to talk to me, they'll usually find me near the fish tank. They were very thrilled when I found R2R and could 'talk' (type) fish/coral with more people more often than just them. Local hobby club monthly mtg is just too infrequent for aquarium chats lol...

Likely every family is different, but praise when daughter wants to watch fish with me instead of watching computer videos or playing computer games - I feel like I won lottery!! Happy dances go a long way!

PS-she's teenager now, so also think it helps that her friends & cousins think tank is cool when they visit
PPS-she is not allowed to have own TV or move computer to her room (but... her iPad and/or hand-me-down phone do sneak off back there but for the most part this keeps her from being reclusive... and raised her this way, so those that already have given in to bedroom tvs or electronics... good luck!)

 

[Driceftw]

My son is just short of 3 and a non verbal autistic. Anything colorful with lights involved he's all for. He doesn't say many words at all yet but Fish is one of them. He doesn't need to know how to feed the fish or mess with anything under the cabinet right now so getting to be held by dad and point at the fish is enough involvement to make me happy.

 

[Eienna]

I try. They don't always appreciate it, though XD
My wife loves invertebrates, so I'm going to try to feature some for her.

 

[Eienna]

My son is just short of 3 and a non verbal autistic. Anything colorful with lights involved he's all for. He doesn't say many words at all yet but Fish is one of them. He doesn't need to know how to feed the fish or mess with anything under the cabinet right now so getting to be held by dad and point at the fish is enough involvement to make me happy.

That's beautiful. <3 I'm high-functioning autistic, myself. Let me know if you ever need someone to talk to about it.

 

[vabben]

My wife could care less, my kids enjoy the tank and going to shows.

 

[Reef and Dive]

How do you involve your kids and/or S.O. in the hobby with you? My wife has moved from tolerating the hobby to being more casually interested, and my kids have gotten more and more interested in the reef hobby the older they get. My daughter in particular loves to go to the reef shows and stores with me. Both the kids name the fish and talk to them. I show them videos and have been teaching them about different fish species. How about you guys?

1) How involved are your family members in the reef hobby?
2) What are some ways they participate with you?

Here's a couple of pictures of my daughter from 9 years ago when I was first introducing her to the hobby.

Amazing topic!

My son loves the aquariums (one on his bedroom, with 2 clowns that he absolutelly loves).

He always helps me with dosing: “dad, now the red one, now this small one, just a little bit of food, not too much…”

It’s his TV, actually…

 

[Driceftw]

That's beautiful. <3 I'm high-functioning autistic, myself. Let me know if you ever need someone to talk to about it.

Thank you!!

 

[reefiniteasy]

My wife and daughters, ages 3 and 4, enjoy visiting TSA and Living Reef with me on an almost weekly basis. My girls name the fish. My wife feeds them during the day when I’m at work. My wife has taken a liking to Zoas and she loves our bubble coral. So over time she has become more interested. I see this in how it has become easier to spend on the tanks.

 

[notMrDurden]

I got a nano in June to get into the hobby... Now for the family, I'm picking up a 90 gallon tomorrow

 

[Projects with Sam]

My daughter names all the fish and coerces my wife into letting me get new livestock. Last acquisition she was responsible for convincing my wife to let me get was a rather expensive maxima clam; S.O. threw out a freshwater clam we found out hiking.

 

[LPS Bum]

How is my family involved you ask?

My kids feed the fish when I’m out of town. My wife complains about how much money I spend on the hobby.