please let my kids be nerds
At bedtime last night, Finn leaned in close and tenderly stroked my cheek, as he always does when he’s about to ask me to buy him something. “Mama. You know, I don’t have any cool stuff to share for sharing day.” Stroke, stroke, nuzzle, nuzzle. “So, I was thinking…I could buy some crystals. At the crystal store.”
Crystals!! Could thunder eggs and postage stamps be far behind?
Hot diggity. Now we were talking.
I have friends who don’t want their kids to be nerds, or to hang out with nerds. But these friends are going about it all wrong. In my experience, it’s hard to turn out interesting as an adult unless you were a nerd while young, or at least, had friendly, sustained contact with nerds. Don’t believe me? Think of the most outwardly-attractive-yet-inwardly-boring adult you know. I guarantee that person has never been a nerd.
Of course, the inverse of that doesn’t work as well. Not all nerds flower into something cool. But look around at your nerdiest friends. Aren’t they often the people you want to hang out with the most? I mean, for short periods of time.
Not to brag, but I was a huge nerd for the majority of my youth. On my first day of kindergarten, I wore an itchy wool dress and a matching hat. A MATCHING HAT. As a new immigrant who barely spoke English, it’s amazing I wasn’t stoned by the other kids. Who cares though. I had no idea how inappropriately I was dressed. Because I was a nerd.
In 7th grade, my plastic glasses broke and I fixed them with a band-aid, because band-aids are adhesive as shit. In 8th grade I walked down an entire hallway at Meadow Park Intermediate School with the back of my skirt tucked into my tights. I played cello. I wore a Guatemalan braided belt. I’m not Guatemalan. Some of my best friends were teachers. I was a nerd.
But it’s ok. Because nerds are tough. While the popular girls were collecting Esprit bags, I was learning how to develop stuff that would help me later in life, when it really mattered. Like a strong will, to cope with the teasing. Or a sense of humor, which helped me make friends with the other nerds. Somewhere along the way, probably in high school, I stopped wanting to fit in with everyone else, and started wanting to be different. That’s when I learned to embrace the nerd, to become one with it.
Finn wears glasses and loves karaoke, but, crystals aside, he’s exhibited few other signs of classic nerd-dom. But Tate, he’s got some serious nerd potential. My youngest has an unnatural fascination with ninjas that only seems to be growing with time. All signs indicate that he’ll be the 14-year old with the Bruce Lee obsession who can quote every line from “Enter the Dragon.” When Tate gets dressed, he invariably tucks his t-shirt into his elastic-waist shorts before hiking the whole rig up to his armpits. I sure as hell didn’t teach him that. That’s strong instinctual nerdiness right there.
Tom, as a pale red-headed child with freakishly long limbs, was also a nerd. In fact, from the photos I’ve seen, he may have been a nerd until as recently as 1998. Given that my kids have nerd on both sides, I’m confident that blood will tell.
Yes. My boys have nerd in them, and I can’t wait to see it shine.
yoonanimous 
I laughed so hard I cried. You are so funny. I want my children to be nerds too. I can’t wait to read more.
Love this. My brother was the Bruce Lee Enter the Dragon guy. He still looks exactly like him at 52. One time he had me paint the scratch marks on his chest with nail polish and take pictures. That’s how nerdy I was – I was the Bruce Lee Enter the Dragon guy’s assistant.
This post inspired my latest – http://foodandwinehedonist.com/2013/11/08/guilty-pleasures-kansas/
wait this comment is so funny, how did i miss it?? still laughing
As a nerd from a family full of cool and stylish people, I wish my quirks had been embraced a little more. I’m an adult now and my family is more supportive, but as a kid it would have been much easier to accept myself if my family had.
i hadn’t ever thought of having the opposite problem…i have been lucky to be surrounded by nerds my whole life
I have two teenagers who really embrace their nerdiness – they would be the first to tell you all about Star Wars and dinosaurs and super heroes. I didn’t really appreciate this until they started high school and I was so happy that they didn’t want to be cool. Great post!
Oh, and I LOVE that you wore a matching hat!
it was so scratchy
Enjoyed this post immensely. 100% true, and so funny. I am going to quote you back to yourself because this is such a gem: “When Tate gets dressed, he invariably tucks his t-shirt into his elastic-waist shorts before hiking the whole rig up to his armpits. I sure as hell didn’t teach him that. That’s strong instinctual nerdiness right there.” Right on!
Tate thanks you
Awesome post. Nerds win. It’s a fact. Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Stephen Colbert…
The converse – George W. was probably always the most popular kid in school.
you were clearly never a nerd so I’m having trouble taking this comment seriously
This is great. I’m a non-hip Portlander, and that is character building, too.
Oh man, that’s funny. And true
Love the pic of you in kindergarten! You look like its 1908 and you’re about to catch a steam-powered rail to spend an Anne of Green Gables-esque summer in the fresh air away from the newly industrialized american city.
As an avid cape-wearer until I was about 9, I fully endorse this philosophy.
oh man, i totally do. wiping tear from eye
YOONA! This blog might single handedly me getting me through med school. This was laugh out loud funny.
oh good! i imagine med school is a great nerd stomping ground
I love this, you make a very good point! I’ve tried to figure out what makes a kid “cool” at least in the elementary school scene, and it seems to come down to a nonchalant disinterest in most truly interesting topics, scoffing at other kids and their enthusiasms, having an unnatural adult-like knowledge of movies/music/pop culture and an ability to properly use sarcasm. There’s not much that grates my nerves more than an 8 year old being successfully sarcastic. I embrace the nerdiness of my oldest son – fish bone collecting, nose deep in the 3rd Warriors book of the week, checking on the petri dish to see how the fern spores are coming along, planning the Halloween costume of Tin Tin the Belgian comic book detective. It’s a rich and interesting world out there, and I’m glad my kids aren’t too cool to savor it all.
OMG. 8 year old sarcasm sounds truly wretched. i hadn’t thought to guard against that. give me bad puns any day. thank you for writing about it
An often repeated comment to our 11 year old supreme nerd, “Just remember, life starts after high school.” I do intervene with his clothes a little more now that he’s interested in girls and doesn’t realize an 11 year old girl cares if his pants are two inches too short or if his shirt is on backwards.
this is so funny cloie, and i’m changing the tagline on my blog in honor of it
Yes! Forget football – I am hoping for nerds too!
the best nerds also love football. then everyone wins
Love this piece, it needs to go viral! I too was a huge nerd. Wore dress up clothes (at home) well into high school. My friends got used to coming over to my house and seeing me wear my huge 1950’s skirt with my 1920’s satin slip. (I was lucky and got to raid a very rich woman’s closet when I was 10) Does loving The Godfather, Bob Dylan and Tom Brokaw–I wanted to be the next Connie Chung–at the age of 13 make me a nerd? If so, Dylan’s won the genetic lottery for nerdom. Don’t even start me on Andy. I think Dartmouth loves jocks and nerds!
Hilarious. Lucky I did not have access to a rich woman’s wardrobe that early in life. Interesting about Andy. I found Dartmouth to be disappointingly nerd-free
Great post! I know the feeling, most recently yesterday when my 5-year-old came home super excited and wanted nothing to do but read his new Star Wars books from the library (one about space, and one about Yoda).
i hate to break it to you but at 5, star wars is the opposite of nerdy. now if he’s 15 and still into star wars, you’re cooking with gas
well, you may be right, but i’ve yet to see a five year old from his school sporting anything star wars (i mostly see avengers, ninja turtles, etc.)…
Yessss! I’m very pro-nerd everything. I do believe in “be your own nerd” like Janis said, so I won’t force my cool kod to give up her ways to emulate her nerdy mama, but I will cultivate all nerd tendencies that might pop up.
yes, no two nerds are alike. it’s the beauty of nerds
: Ha! Exactly! I told my big girls it’s ok to be nerds, because I told them, when they grow up and are in real life, nerds rule the world and everything in it! “Be your own nerd!”(-Bre). I was a nerd-athlete though, lol.
giving birth to a nerd athlete is like winning the kid lotto, as far as i’m concerned
I love this. Nerds rule. My kids “have nerd in them” too. To be cool or a “jock” would be rather rebellious, for our family. But their interests will be what they are, it’s their character that you should be concerned with as a parent. Again, love this.
of course, of course. i find that being different, or having to overcome some hardship as a child, builds strength of character. so for me the two are related
This may be an excellent example of when parenting calls for a little reverse psychology. Nerdiness can become the personality equivalent of piano lessons. How many adults regret they didn’t simply learn to play when they had parents footing the bill and insisting they practice every day? But they just couldn’t. Because they were told they HAD to. Mom or Dad or both simply wanted it too much.
If the boys intuit you approve of nerdiness in general and are desirous of encouraging their individual nerdiness specifically, it may be the first set of attributes they ditch once their rebellious stage arrives. You might consider at least appearing reluctant when indulging their developing inner nerd in order to have that be something they’ll value independently and call their very own. By the time they’e old enough to figure out you secretly approve it won’t matter any more. Nerd abides.
oooh, sage advice. i will be more subtle in my embrace of the nerd