My mother was supportive, but never really understood it. I’ve mentioned before, but we couldn’t really afford packs, so instead she’d find binders and boxes full of cards at yard sales for my sibling and me to split, along with VHS tapes and anything else Pokémon. She knew we liked it, and that was enough.
Over the years, she’s gone through cards with us and watched a few episodes here and there, even played Pokemon GO with us for a while, and as a result has a few assorted favorites. My sibling and I have given her a few cards over the years, and she has a small collection now too. A few of her favorites, with the same commentary every time:
Meowth (“because of his little teeth”), Skitty (“skittley”), Flaaffy (“I want to pet its little head!”), Eevee (“now is that a cat or a dog?”), and Bouffalant (“boufey”). She also calls Piplup and Prinplup “Pipluff” and “Prinfluff”, which is objectively adorable, ha. And yes, she says the exact same things every single time any of the above come up.
My dad was mostly ambivalent toward Pokémon as a franchise, but he was also a collector at heart, so he understood the collection aspect more than my mom ever has. I have fond memories of going to early-morning Midwestern flea markets with my dad to score some great deals from people that didn’t know what they had. We’d go to any booth that either had collectibles or vintage hand tools- it was a blast.
I vividly remember one time after chatting with a booth owner at 12 years old (and subsequently talking them down on a binder collection for a steal), my dad asking me how I remembered so much about what cards were worthwhile. I shot right back, “Well how do you remember so much about old machinery?” He laughed and shrugged, and conceded that was fair enough.
I didn’t really mean to go on a ramble there, but TLDR both parents were supportive, but only really understood half of why I love collecting Pokemon, respectively.
.