Day 4 of SDCC – Con with a Kid

Posted on July 13, 2015 5:22 pm by EpicGrays

For the last 20 years or so, I’ve done Comic-Con the same way. A group of us meet in San Diego, we try to coordinate meals, we wander the convention floor together, we go to panels together when they interest us, but we’re pretty free to do what we want, when we want to and there’s never a second thought if someone can’t do something with the group because they want to do something else!

SDCC2015TARDISWell, this year, my husband an I decided to take our 12-year-old nephew to the Con on Sunday. Let me tell you, my hats off to all you parents who take your kids to Comic-Con. It was a great experience, but following behind a 12-year-old while they explore the convention floor certainly made me look at the convention differently. A couple things I learned:

  1. Have goals, but be flexible – Our first goal was to find the TARDIS on display at The Hollywood Sci-Fi Museum booth. Along the way we took detours and stops, but it gave us a direction to head. We then needed a new goal so we went to the Small Press area to look for pins for his lanyard, again, stopping along the way if he saw something that caught his attention.
  2. 12-year-olds need breaks – There were a couple times when we needed to sit and re-energize. I tried to station us in the sales pavilion where we could people watch while we took a break. It was a good way to rest without getting board.
  3. Double check information – One of the big fails (and learning experiences) that came out of the day was missing a signing and photo-op. Our nephew wanted to get a picture with a YouTuber he’s a big fan of, but one of the line wranglers said the guy would be taking a break until 1:30 (2 hours away). So we went and got lunch and came back only to find that he was FINISHED signing at 1:30. My nephew was able to get some quick pictures from a few feet away, but he was still very disappointed.

All in all, I think it was a very positive experience for everyone. While the day was mostly focused on our nephew, I was still able to buy a really cool Avengers print by artist Dave Pryor and we went to a very cool panel about The Future of Fan Culture which looked at the changing demographics in Geek Culture and asked the question, “Why aren’t we seeing that diversity reflected in the media we consume?” I believe the panel will be posted on The Word Balloon.

Overall, this was a very exciting convention. Starting geektitude definitely changed my experience, but in very good and fun ways. I’ll be spending the next week with my husband’s family in Cape Cod, so I may not be posting every day. But make sure to follow me on Twitter and Facebook as I’ll be sorting through all the new people I’ve met and groups I’ve followed so I can start connecting you to all the geeky things out there you might not be aware of!

Thank you to everyone who made this year’s Comic-Con International such a wonderful experience!