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I really want to go geocaching...


jacob501

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Yeah but are my parents willing to let me go with someone else? Probably not...

 

Nice to see you're still around, Jacob. Why don't you sit down and talk with your parents. Tell them you'd like to do more geocaching and give them the ideas that were suggested to you in the other threads. Ask them which options they'd be willing to allow. Heck, ask if they any have ideas.

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Ohhhh Jacob you will have much much more awkward discussions with your parents as you age. Might as well just start now and bite the bullet and have a talk with them. None of us here can fix this for you. I know you need to vent but you are the only one who can address this with your parents. None of us can do it for you.

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Hey Jacob!

 

yeah maybe...but all of my "friends" would think its really geeky or stupid.

 

This sounds like you still haven't attempted to bring Geocaching up with your friends.

 

Yeah but are my parents willing to let me go with someone else? Probably not...

 

Probably not? Sounds like you haven't asked yet.

 

but nobody wants to take me!!!

 

See the one directly above.

 

Have you taken any of the advice offered to you on this forum? Don't get me wrong, it's nice to hear from you, but I would like to see you try some of the suggestions and then stop back and tell us how it went. :)

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yeah maybe...but all of my "friends" would think its really geeky or stupid.

My friends think the same thing. :blink: My wife just comes along for the ride but my kids enjoy geocaching. :rolleyes: Ask your parents to take you geocaching or play Xbox with you. :lol: I get tired of getting my butt kicked by a 14 year old, but I would rather go geocaching anyway. :laughing:

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yeah maybe...but all of my "friends" would think its really geeky or stupid.

Not necessarily. My son and wife think I'm a bit goofy about geocaching, but my son (he's 27) has mentioned it to a couple of his friends and SURPRISE! they have geocached, too. I think you might get one or two interested, and can probably bring it up in a casual way. I imagine at least one of them will be interested. Go for it! Good luck!

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I think you really should introduce it to your friends. There reactions might be more positive than you think. I even convinced my little brother to go geocaching with me, and a group of friend I forced to pass by some geocaches next to the water with our boat. Everybody has that little piece of treasurehunting excitement, just trigger it in the right way and tell them about 'the treasures' that might be in the cache. Believe me, there are way more geeky things in life. With all due respect, I have a collegue who leaves work directly when he get's a message of a special bird spotted somewhere in Netherland... Just saying :D

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Jacob I seem to remember you had another thread like this a while back. Lots of good ideas were put forward then, and lots more are on this thread, have you tried any of them?

 

Nobody can wave a magic wand to make your parents take you geocaching. You need to ask them outright. What do you normally do as a family at the weekends? Could you suggest a family walk/picnic in a park/forest where there are some geocaches, or incorporate bagging a cache into your usual weekend activities?

 

Speaking as a parent of teenagers, I would be only too delighted if my kids wanted to spend time in the great outdoors. Just what is it that your parents don't like about geocaching?

 

Your friends think geocaching is geeky and stupid? I thought that too until I tried it. It's their loss.

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Go with your parents when the go places and sneak one or two in then. Also ask them to take you to a local event, meet and greet or whatever you can find locally. That way you and them can meet some local cachers.

 

Are there any local Geocaching clubs by you?

 

Good luck :)

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Go with your parents when the go places and sneak one or two in then. Also ask them to take you to a local event, meet and greet or whatever you can find locally. That way you and them can meet some local cachers.

 

Are there any local Geocaching clubs by you?

 

Good luck :)

There aren't very many active cachers in my area...and there are hardly ever any events in my small town...if there is an event its at a bar and on a Sunday!

 

But yes that usually is when I convince my parents to go geocaching...when we're already out at the store or something...sometimes I get the feeling that they are annoyed by it!

 

But I still want to know how I can talk to my friends about it without coming off as a weirdo or a geek....because the other thing I was thinking about is that most people who know about geocaching have heard about it from Girl Scouts! And if that isn't weird to say you really like doing something that they think only Girl Scouts do then I don't know what is!

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Tell them about an very cool cache you found somewhere. One of the caches I (did not) found (it was lost) was in an old Russian nuclear missile base in Latvia. My friends all responded extremely positive, because what is cooler then coming on places you would otherwise never come. It is all about how you bring it. If you tell that girlscouts are doing it all the time you will get a negative reaction. Tell them the awesome sides of taking the adventure!

Greats from Netherlands and Latvia ;)

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And if that isn't weird to say you really like doing something that they think only Girl Scouts do then I don't know what is!

 

Are you saying Girl Scouts are weird and geeky!?!?!?! :D

 

Check out the “cool cache containers” and “The Hunt/The Unusual” threads for interesting things about geocaching that you can tell your friends about. Show them some travel bugs/geocoins with interesting missions on the geocaching site.

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Its too awkward to talk about around them...

 

Sounds like a lot of excuses... If you want something, make it happen! That's how I got to where I am.

 

They're right...nobody can read your mind or anticipate your every wish. You don't ask, you don't get.

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how do you think i can bring up geocaching to my friends and not make it sound really geeky?

 

Hmmm... you could spin it more towards the outdoor/hiking/challenge aspect of it maybe? Maybe make it a little competitive - whoever finds the most gets "whatever" LOL.

 

My husband thinks its extraordinarily geeky and dumb, but I do it all the time anyway. My little kids and one of my teens adore it. I bet your parents would be glad that you are doing something that gets you out of the house, something that is challenging, and something that is not getting you in trouble. :) I know if my 15 yo begged to go caching or hiking, I'd be thrilled. ;)

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Yeah but are my parents willing to let me go with someone else? Probably not...

 

Tell your parents that you met someone on the internet that offered to take you geocaching. That might get them off their rear ends and take you out to go geocaching.

That would get this dad's attention. :blink:

 

Yeah...this might be a really bad suggestion. LOL.

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just randomly make friends with them?

 

Well, if you see them finding your cache, certainly go up and say hello. Introduce yourself as the cache owner and ask them about their caching. Exchange email addresses and the friendship starts from there.

 

I've met quite a lot of cachers 'in the field'. All of whom are good friends now.

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Its too awkward to talk about around them...

 

I dunno...most of my good friends who are parents of young teenagers would be happy just to get their kids away from their xBox and/or Wii and get OUTSIDE. I'm quite sure my friends WISH their kids would take up a hobby like geocaching.

 

I think you can definitely give a convincing argument to your parents about the merits of going outside and going caching. It's a very healthy, active hobby. So much better than sitting around watching TV!

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yeah but whats the point if my parents won't let me go caching with some random person?

 

How do you know they won't? Have you asked them?

 

Anyway, it won't be some random person, it will be a fellow geocacher. Better still, a family or group of fellow geocachers with kids your age. How are you doing with finding out about any local cachers?

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Well I have emailed about 3 people about their caches or having trouble finding other's caches and they have responded back and replied quickly but its not like they're just going to randomly ask me to go caching with them!

 

Any way you can get out to some events. Good way to make contacts.

I was talking with a fellow cacher the other day around here, and he said there is this guy out here that does all his caching on a bike. I don't know what your cache saturation is, but that is an option too.

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Well I have emailed about 3 people about their caches or having trouble finding other's caches and they have responded back and replied quickly but its not like they're just going to randomly ask me to go caching with them!

 

Maybe not out of the blue. But keep emailing and build up the friendships, explain the situation you're in, that for whatever reason your parents can't take you caching. Make it known that you'd be very happy to tag along on a group caching trip.

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Yeah but are my parents willing to let me go with someone else? Probably not...

 

Tell your parents that you met someone on the internet that offered to take you geocaching. That might get them off their rear ends and take you out to go geocaching.

That would get this dad's attention. :blink:

 

Yeah...this might be a really bad suggestion. LOL.

 

Of course, I wrote that in jest, but that's essentially what happened, and it sounds like getting dad's attention is what it's going to take to get results.

 

Dad should probably understand that his son would like to engage in a (mostly) harmless activity that involves both physical and mental exercise and has a significant social component and the amount of support that jacob is getting has been described as "annoyed".

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