Nerdy Moms Share How They Engage Their Kids in Geeky Hobbies

Last Updated on September 3, 2023 by Jenn | The Nerd Mom

Nerdy moms tend to have some nerdy hobbies. Whether you’re a gamer girl or a science geek, chances are you like to spend your free time expressing your inner nerd.

Since you’re passionate about your interests, it’s only natural that you would hope your kids will enjoy some of the same things. So how can you get your kids involved? I asked other nerdy moms to share the ways they engage their kids in their hobbies. They had some awesome ideas!

Note: Some answers have been edited for minor spelling/grammar.

“He knows everything about Ghostbusters, he watched all of the Harry Potter movies in two days, and he is fascinated with old videos of The Rock and wrestling. And Power Rangers. I think he’s now watched every movie in the Avengers series. And whenever he’s watching a movie I have to be prepared for the questions. He can’t just watch a movie, he wants to know the entire backstory. He doesn’t want to see it unfold, he wants to know before it happens. And sometimes those questions are deep!”

Lindsey

“Right now my boys are young so they’re exploring all kinds of interests but I’m excited about going all-in in the future if either wants to join me in geekdom! My youngest is only 6 months so the extent of his nerdiness is a Harry Potter taggie blanket and a few onesies, but my 3 year old is already joining the dark side. He loves family video game time (Skyrim, Kingdom Hearts, Spyro…), is an avid reader (listener?), and needs to know EVERYTHING. If he asks a question and you don’t have a good enough response, he’ll ask you to go look it up for him. He’s an adorable little datahead. He’s also very into imaginative play and quite passionate with acting out his favorite characters, so I can see him as a future cosplayer. I’m looking forward to supporting my little nerds if that’s who they choose to be; we’re already all having a blast with it together.”

Stacie, Exploration Motherhood

“We (my hubby and I) play a game on our phone called Summoners War. Our son loves watching it and looking at the monsters. It’s fun to share with him.”

Maria

“We always do nerdy family Halloween costumes. Characters from Green Arrow one year, Fortnite another. We introduced Son of Ours to comics, superheroes, anime, and enjoy watching series together. We play video games together. And read all sorts of books series together.”

Kara

“My 6-year-old son is a huge Mario fan! I loved playing video games when I was a kid. My favorite was our Nintendo (we had to stick two cartridges in to get it to work after blowing on the game and pushing it up and down a bunch of times didn’t do the trick ). One day he put the original Super Mario Bros on and we beat the game together. He was shocked when I showed him all of the secrets! It’s a fun thing to do for family game nights.”

Alice, Mommy to Mom

“I’m a little bit of an analytics nerd with my blog. I taught my 9-year-old how to gauge if a pin is doing well and that led to teaching her Canva and how to create pins for Pinterest. Her summer bucket list included ‘create a pin that gets 5 clicks.’ That made me laugh so hard! She’s so into it! I love sharing this with her!”

Crystal, Simply Full of Delight

“I’m a doctor and my kids have learned the anatomic terms for all of human anatomy. My 4 year old walks around telling people his fingers are ‘phalanges’, my 2 year old (who is being potty trained) tells me ‘pee is coming out of my penis’. My 2 year old recently got ear tubes and they all had to look through my otoscope to see them, and we have ling sessions where they use my stethoscope to listen to everyones heart and correctly can tell you the heart says ‘lub-dup’.”

Sarah

“I’m running a one-shot Scooby-Doo themed Dread game with my son/nephews.”

Katy, ADHD and the Stay at Home Mom

“Currently we play a horrible amount of video games together the top favorites being Fortnite, Smite, and occasionally Call of Duty (I am a horrible first person shooter so they tolerate me). We also play a deck building card game where you play with a bunch of DC heroes and villains. Lastly our movies of choice (which I am very proud) are the LOTR and Hobbit movies along with Harry Potter. My oldest has a huge anime kick going, the boys made sure I have seen every marvel movie in their life time, and my hubs gave me a “Pokemon anatomy index” for mothers day.”

Rachael

“My son’s name is Meliodas, like the main character from 7deadly sins! I started him super early, letting him use an old controller to help me play games. Now he is 2, and gets excited over playing Resident Evil, and loves Mario! He has cosplayed, and now his little sister Cambria is getting in on the action.”

Caitlin

“I play tabletop RPGs and board games. My kids have been playing board games for years now. Ticket to Ride First Journey was a big hit with them, though now at 7yo (twins), they prefer the grown-up version (more points). Combining RPG and board games, we started Mice and Mystics. We take about two days to cover one chapter, and we are almost through the Downwood Tales expansion.”

J Monica

“My husband and I are both gamers. From Atari to PS4 and everything in between. We have a 9 and 10 year old. Both girls. They mostly play on the Xbox 360. We have a closet full of board games. And play them many times a week.”

Melissa

“My kids and I share an animal crossing island. We (before quarantine) go to conventions together, gave my son a nerf gun battle birthday party. We painted bricks together that came out pretty geeky. My daughter loves anime and she’s like 5 and it blows my mind how much she’s obsessed with shipping… oh, and my kids paint Warhammer models”

Amanda

“I share my love of math and science with my daughter. We google math and science facts. She loves astronomy.”

Lynn

“All 3 of my monkeys game, all of us play Fortnite, Minecraft, Brawhalla and other games. We started all our monkeys young and it’s always a fun time when we are all playing together.”

Liz-Mare

“All 8 of my kids play games with us, Magic, card games, Cards Against Humanity, board games, and video games. Gta5, Tera, Forza, Diablo, COD, L4D, Smash Bros, Mortal Kombat, Injustice, just to name a few. Oldest 14, youngest 5. We started with an unplugged old controller, eventually started handing over working controllers and making them figure it out for themselves. We do family game time and everyone loves it.”

Katie

And what about me? Like other nerdy moms mentioned above, I read to my kids a lot. I hope they will love books as much as I do! I’ve introduced them to Star Wars and talk about the characters with them. Sometimes we do geeky crafts together. I let them watch me play video games, and hopefully, someday they will be able to join in!

What about you? What do geeky hobbies do you share with your kids? Tell me in the comments!