Back when we were first toying with the idea of starting a blog we did the typical, “what should we call it?” dance. Words were said that can never be unsaid, like blogger, fun, and easy. I’ll let you work out how that went.
One of the early ideas that was particularly attractive to us was calling it Awesomely Weird. As you’ll see by our favicon, and various other media we use here, in our store, and beyond we stuck with it as an idea if not the blog name. The “weird” connection with 60’s counterculture is merely a coincidence, the connection to VW somewhat less so… the Vanagon is a bit weird.
We decided to focus on the idea of promoting adventuresome behavior in ourselves and our children, but that core geek ideal of being weird is still a big part of this. The phrase itself has been around our household for awhile. As far back as 2014 we noted this interaction between our then 6 and 3 year old:
Words of the week:
3yo – awesome
6yo – weird
Often applied to the same thing.
With kids that like pretending to be superheroes, mad scientists, bluegrass musicians, and Doctor Who, it’s hard not to think of them as awesome. When they also love sci-fi, building Legos, gaming – including making their own games, and sneak off to read Beowulf until midnight, they are by definition a bit weird. Weird in the very best way. So while there may be no real deep meaning in “Awesomely Weird” it is a phrase that we love, and something we think of as a positive phrase for parenting in general.
So, kids, stay awesome, stay weird! Believe me, you come by it naturally.