Reading most of these are depressing. There's no point in trying to win over your parent's support if they are too ignorant to see the value in an endeavor. Your time is better spent finding people that will support your goals, whether it be an engineering degree, snowboarding, filmmaking, or a strategy game. If your parents are unwilling to give you support in an area of interest then you should look for support from people that do believe in you.
I have the luxury that my dad is smart enough to understand the value in competitive strategy games since he used to play chess and now is working on other games like TTR. If it's not worth mentioning to friends and family then you have no reason to talk about it anyways, many of my friends just aren't really interested in competitive gaming and we connect through other interests like football, film, snowboarding, etc. People who know me well know I wouldn't waste time with a game like Pokemon unless there was something interesting about it, thus my argument for why it is worth playing is simply that they know I play it.
Mons is just one part of my life, and I let all other parts stand alone and speak for themselves. Your parents can't scapegoat mons for poor academic performance if your grades are good, or if you allocate more interest to something nonacademic like partying. I would avoid trying to win your parent's acceptance just for the sake of it, but I suppose you can convince anyone of competitive mon's merits so long as they aren't beyond stupid, or find another competitive game fundamentally superior.
Parents that have the mentality that developing skill in mons "doesn't matter" or is "immature" is a very immature idea in of itself. On a fundamental level, achieving at mons is no different than achieving in sports or achieving in the arts. The superficial difference is that the latter two have more widespread glory associated with them, but at the core sport and art isn't about money or glory, it's about enriching and challenging yourself, and a case could be made that mons is more challenging or enriching than several sports or arts. For parents that actually believe Pokemon is satanic or anti-religion / whatever they aren't worth your time and you should keep Pokemon to yourself.
I have the luxury that my dad is smart enough to understand the value in competitive strategy games since he used to play chess and now is working on other games like TTR. If it's not worth mentioning to friends and family then you have no reason to talk about it anyways, many of my friends just aren't really interested in competitive gaming and we connect through other interests like football, film, snowboarding, etc. People who know me well know I wouldn't waste time with a game like Pokemon unless there was something interesting about it, thus my argument for why it is worth playing is simply that they know I play it.
Mons is just one part of my life, and I let all other parts stand alone and speak for themselves. Your parents can't scapegoat mons for poor academic performance if your grades are good, or if you allocate more interest to something nonacademic like partying. I would avoid trying to win your parent's acceptance just for the sake of it, but I suppose you can convince anyone of competitive mon's merits so long as they aren't beyond stupid, or find another competitive game fundamentally superior.
Parents that have the mentality that developing skill in mons "doesn't matter" or is "immature" is a very immature idea in of itself. On a fundamental level, achieving at mons is no different than achieving in sports or achieving in the arts. The superficial difference is that the latter two have more widespread glory associated with them, but at the core sport and art isn't about money or glory, it's about enriching and challenging yourself, and a case could be made that mons is more challenging or enriching than several sports or arts. For parents that actually believe Pokemon is satanic or anti-religion / whatever they aren't worth your time and you should keep Pokemon to yourself.