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My wife started off painting with me when we first met, now she allows me a big display case in the study, tolerates me leaving bits all around the house, tolerates me having 'geeky' conversations with 'geeky' friends until she meets them and realises they are normal. Generally she is quite supportive, if she is going shopping and I want something from GW she is quite happy to take a list, pay for it and pick it up. I think I'm lucky.

My wife spends more time reading the books than I do.

This point gets emphasised more and more as time goes by. This passing weekend, I purchased Firedrake after my club had finished with it's gaming for the week, intending to go home and read it. Upon my return, she plucked it out of my hand, thanked me, and proceeded to sit down and begin to read.

On the actual gaming side, she doesn't play, but she's more than tolerant of my play, and of finding messes and such after I've experimented with something. Still trying to get her to play though.

What is a "spouse"?

I couldn't find that in the rule book?

It's the expansion to that costs a ton of money, and it's the only edition you can play with for the rest of your life.

Coming soon: Children, the new expansion!



My wife is a game, and not only understands/gets my gaming, but supports and encourages it. True, i do get the occasional sigh of "I'd rather you be home" or "Another convention?", but she knows it's something I'm passionate about, and accepts it.

Wow, all these stories about supportive wives/fiances/girlfriends is making me a little jealous.

Well, needless to say, my wife is not thrilled about my gaming hobbies. And by "not thrilled", I mean she hates it. She says it's "unattractive and childish", which to a degree, I can understand. The stigma that comes with some forms of gaming aren't very pleasing, generally speaking, and to be honest, some of my gamer friends, whom she has met before, aren't very easy on the eyes either.

She especially gets mad when I knowingly make plans to do these sorts of things, but pretty much forgets about it soon after. However, our son was just born a few months ago, and she just went away with her mother and sister for awhile, while I got to bond with my son. Brownie points will definitely be cashed in in the near future.

Also, in regards to comments like this...

Beer_&_Bolters wrote: " You spent $300.00 dollars on WHAT?!"

I usually come up with things to the effect of "Whatever I've spent on my hobby doesn't come NEARLY as close as to how much you've spent on shoes and purses. When was the last time you wore all of your shoes in a single month? At least I use everything I've spent my money on."

My wife not only supports me in my hobby endeavours, she doesn't put me down, and even buys me stuff. I have a great wife.

Sure, she calls me geek or nerd on occasion, but I call myself that anyway (and she has never used it in a negative way).

We have no children (and can't have them) so my hobby time will never be reduced by them, and my finances will never know the drain of little feets.

"can I spend $50 on a new tank for my army?"
"NO!"
"OK, going to the strip club with my buddies"
"How much was that tank again?"

That sounds perfect chrome!

My last Girlfriend actually heard me talking about the hobby when I was explaining it to a coworker who asked me about it.

That's how we met.

Unfortunately she wanted to have kids, and that's how we split.

No spouse but my GF who will be that one day doesn't have any interest at all. But, she doesn't mind me painting models and all that stuff, she likes that I have a creative hobby that I enjoy.

My GF has watched the games, and I'm pretty sure she'd give 40k a whirl if they looked like bretionians that she actually does paint.

I am not allowed to have anything unpainted on display, which is fine.

From the spouses point of view...

I think 40k is a totally childish, messy hobby and I'm sick of my husbands little toy orks taking up all the room on the huge desk we have in our front room and many cabinets of his armies and constant dreaming about getting yet another army...

...I need the room for MY Dark Eldar and darn it I reserve some room for my future chaos SoBs!!!


(Seriosly though I do not get the hatred shown by others of my gender for their partners hobbies... its much more fun to either join in or at least find some humor in it!)

My wife at first viewed it as a curiosity and then was bemused by it as it grew from "I just want to build a dreadnought and have it sit in my office so I can admire it." to now "My 1750 point Spacemarine army is nearly complete!"

The cool thing is that she occasionally paints with me and gives me advice on colors, etc since she is far more artistic than I. However the expense of the hobby has started to creep in on her as she sees stacks of unopened models piling up in our apartment and more coming through the door. She has been gently reminding me that buying a LR right now makes no sense when I have so many unopened models still waiting for my attention.

However she does appreciate my take on the expense. Some men go out and drink their money away, some gamble, others spend it on their favorite sports team. This is my vice and it keeps me home close to my family.

My girlfriends reaction is probably best represented with a timeline


September: We have been going out for 9 months. I start playing 40k again. She is confused by the small figures and high pricetag, but supportive.

Early October: She agrees to help me buy painting stuff, as she is an artist and knows these things. She is mildly interested in trying her hand at painting them herself.
Late October: She wants to see a game being played, and to learn the rules "so she will know wtf I am talking about" when 40k comes up in conversation.

Early November: She decides to start collecting an army herself, but doesn't know which one to start.
Late November: She takes her Eldar codex to Thanksgiving Dinner.

Early December: She has the beginnings of an Eldar army, which she is prepping to begin painting early next year.


God I love her.

No differantly then I treat her obsession with Twilight. Neither of us really like it, but we leave it be.

My wife has been very supportive.

The only grief i get is when I call my friend and discuss the hobby she likes to come into the room asking when my next playdate with my boyfirend is...

Its pretty funny so i cant get mad at her.

What's with these supportive/interested women?! My gf properly dislikes it/has no interest. Ditto for my two buddies ladies. One of them derisively calls them "dollies".

My wife passively accepts my hobby, and treats it with a mixture of mocking disinterest and disbelief, the same way I treat her love of bad reality tv and "girly shows".

Tbh I'm glad she doesn't like it or want to do it, because then I would have to reciprocate by watching Glee and House Hunters...

One of my best friend long time players wives calls them:

"Little Dudes"

We all kind of like that!

Hmmm, my GF isn't interested in the gaming side, but really appreciates the creative side. Which is great because I'm more of a collector than a gamer

She had been previously exposed to 40k before we met, which made it a little easier, albeit confusing for me when it came up early on in our relationship!

Her: "So, tell me something I don't know about you?
Me: "Ummm...you know I'm an unasamhed geek? Well I love this silly game called Warhammer 40k..."
Her: "Cool! What do you play?"
Me: "Oh, Eldar"
Her: "They were always my favourite. What Craftworld?"
Me: " "

As a result I've returned to the hobby after a hiatus now that I've started Dark Eldar, which she has describe my first attempts as "Well, he doesn't look very friendly at all"

I feel sorry for the guys and gals out there who feel they need to hide it away like some secret shame. Its good to reply to an SMS of "What are you up to?" with "Playing with my toy soldiers babe"

My fiance loves it, she thinks she's nerdier than I am so she loves seeing some 'nerd' in me. She thinks it's... "cute" how obsessed I am with 40k hahah she's awesome

Mrs Flashman wants it noted that she came with me to Warhammer World in Nottingham, spent ages looking at all the minis in the display cabinets and took a photo of me standing in front of the Space Marine statue. She occassionally talks about 3 ups to demonstrate she was paying attention that day.

My wife makes fun of my hobby... though she likes to paint the occasional fig. Its just not her thing; shes more into Motorcycles and stuff.

Hah, most of you guys are very lucky! I'm only 17 at the moment and the girls my age haven't really grown up yet, it's all very generic nerdiness, and prejudice. Although there are some that don't mind that kinda thing, still iffy about it though.

Sigh, someday eh?

My girlfriend's been nothing but supportive when it comes to Warhammer. It's made easier because we're both huge nerds - we both love anime and manga, and though she's not a huge gamer she still loves video games. It also helps that one of her best friends used to play Fantasy, with a Wood Elf army, so she's got a little bit of exposure to it, and she knows how much I love it, so she manages to put up with my rabid fanboying and discussions about the game.

She's also interested in a hobby called ball-jointed dolls - basically very intricate, posable dolls about 30-45cms high (or roughly the size of a Reaver Titan from FW) and made of resin, so they're VERY expensive, anywhere from $300 and up, usually around $600. It makes it a lot easier to justify spending the amount of money that I do on GW when she's done the same thing with her BJDs, so that's never a problem between us. And she's more than happy to come along to the FLGS if I want to get a game in, since she's happy to sit and read in the manga section.

Mrs Phototoxin doesn't like it when I have space marines on a table for a week (as I paint in batches!) Otherwise she's semi-ok with it.

She is tolerant to the point I can build the odd rhino in the lounge whilst we watch a movie together... but refers to 40k as "that game" or will ask if I am enjoying "painting my little men"... but is better than me going out drinking etc.

Aurelia wrote:
(Seriosly though I do not get the hatred shown by others of my gender for their partners hobbies... its much more fun to either join in or at least find some humor in it!)

Can I introduce you to my wife?

CT GAMER wrote:Tbh I'm glad she doesn't like it or want to do it, because then I would have to reciprocate by watching Glee and House Hunters...

I totally know what you mean. Despite her disinterest/hatred for it, it does provide me that same excuse not to sit through Dancing with the Stars or the Jersey Shore.

My partner doesn't understand my hobbies, but encourages me to game with the guys. Plus he buys me gaming stuff...I just scored Dust Tactics and Wings of War

KamikazeCanuck wrote:One of them derisively calls them "dollies".

Hell, I call them my warbarbies, wardollies and man-barbies. Take their wounding words and use them as armour. Yes, the principle IS the same one used by Afro-american youth taking back the 'n' word and using it amongst each other. You can't take the piss from something even I don't take that seriously.

@Augustus: When we met, she knew I was a gamer (we met through mutual friends who were SF fans and/or gamers) and that it would not be changing. She agrees that it is necessary for even close partners to have time apart with hobbies. Besides, her family all collect something, from trains to airplanes, to radios, stamps, model cars (mustangs only), etc so I'm the 'normal' one who plays with his toys.

Awesome!

Perhaps one day there shall be one for me! Till then, back to the painting table!

I find the amount of supportive spouses out there encouraging!