In the film City Slickers, one of the characters discusses why a kid’s game—baseball—is so important to him.

“You’re right, I suppose. I mean, I guess it is childish. But when I was about 18, and my dad and I couldn’t communicate about anything at all, we could still talk about baseball.”

It’s a sentiment that Brian Greenleaf understands. He shares a similar connection with his father. But it doesn’t come from baseball. It’s thanks to Star Wars.

“My dad was always there showing me Star Wars and all that. So that was really cool to do all that with him,” Greenleaf tells Upvoted. “We never really had a lot in common, because he liked cars and he liked airplanes. And I liked video games and all that stuff. So we had those moments where we drifted away, but Star Wars really held us together. … Star Wars always brought us back.”

Like family heirlooms or a love of a particular sports team, dads and moms are passing along their joy of Star Wars, comic books, and other fandoms and creating a special bond with their children. Greenleaf and his dad are part of a group of parents and kids who are finding common ground with one another thanks to their shared love of what we’ll affectionately call “geek” pastimes.

An immigrant from Vietnam, Greenleaf’s electrician dad developed a love for science-fiction in America watching TV shows like Star Trek and Johnny Quest. Then he saw Star Wars in the theaters when it came out in 1977.

“Definitely seeing Star Wars was a big thing for him, but I think he kept it to himself,” says Greenleaf, who works for an e-commerce company and lives in Orange County, Calif. “My mom definitely doesn’t know anything about Star Wars. He wasn’t the guy who had to have all the toys. He told me he liked comics and that stuff, too. And he’s like a different generation from a different country where all this stuff is relatively new to them and it’s not ingrained in their culture. And I think it opened the door for him a bit.”

He kept that door open for his now-24-year-old son, too. The two would watch the original trilogy on VHS together throughout Greenleaf’s childhood, dad would keep son stocked in Star Wars T-shirts and costumes, and the two went to see Star Wars: Episode I—The Phantom Menace when Greenleaf was 9.

“I think Star Wars is great [at] keeping the family together.” Brian Greenleaf

If parents dream to see their kids surpass them, Greenleaf has certainly accomplished that when it comes to his Star Wars fandom: He’s part of the 501st Legion, an international group of fans whose members attend events in Star Wars attire, and fashions his own costumes.

“He was never as diehard as I grew up to be …,” he explains. “I kinda took it from there … and I kinda blew it up, and I got him totally super-psyched about it and everything.”

Now that the learner has become the master—to paraphrase Darth Vader from A New Hope—Greenleaf has been introducing his father to a different side of Star Wars fan culture, taking him to a variety of events, such as Comic-Con and Star Wars Celebration. Recently, he posted a photo in Reddit’s Pics community of father and son posing in homemade armor as a Clone Trooper from the prequels and a First Order Stormtrooper from Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

“Once he saw me bringing a lot of costumes home and making them, he got interested,” Greenleaf says. “He’d ask me, ‘Can I try it on? Can I wear it?’ I’ve taken him to a lot of character events and introduced him to a lot of people, and he’s really gotten into it. And he wants to do it. … From that Reddit post, his co-workers saw the post and talked to him about it. I think he’s getting super-in to it. ”

Appropriately, the two also dressed up as starship pilots from different eras—Greenleaf as a Resistance pilot from The Force Awakens, his dad as an Imperial crew member from the original trilogy—to see a Thursday screening of the new film.

“I think it’s great that he introduced it to me as a child and that I’m kinda able to give him the same experience, and to always have Star Wars as our anchoring point, as this connection between us,” Greenleaf says. “No matter what we go through, there’s always like Star Wars. It’s always there for both of us.”

“I think Star Wars is great [at] keeping the family together.”

What It’s Like to be a Geek Parent

Like Greenleaf with Star Wars, Sue, a mother of two, grew up devouring superheroes and comic books, which has helped her make a name for herself as comics community blogger and commentator with her DC Women Kicking Ass Tumblr and as part of the 3 Chicks Review Comics podcast.

“Everything comes from Batman!” Sue says. “The first time I saw the TV show, I needed to have someone buy me the comic. One thing led to another, and soon I was reading Archie comics, too. I’ve fallen out of comics from time to time due to, well, life—but I always came back.”

(Note: Sue requested her last name and the name of her children not used because of harassment and threats in the past that also mentioned her kids.)

Back in the day, Sue fed her comic book appetite by picking up her favorite issues from the spinner racks at the local drug store. Now that comics have become more mainstream, her children—a son in middle school and daughter in high school—have had different opportunities to experience the medium, and she’s taken advantage of them to make the introductions.

“With my daughter, I started with Archie. And she loved them,” Sue said. “Then it was Tiny Titans and Young Avengers for both of them. Young Avengers was great because they could watch the TV show, as well.”

“When they were young, I started taking them to Free Comic Book Day and made it a big day along the lines of Christmas or Halloween,” she added. “We would talk about the comics that would be there and what else they want to read. We would also make T-shirts with their favorite characters: my son the Tiny Titan Flash and my daughter Artemis of Young Justice. We would come home and read all the comics we got (we would buy some, too). They looked forward to it every year.”

“I’ve fallen out of comics from time to time due to, well life, but I always came back.” Sue of the DC Women Kicking Ass blog

And what type of conversations came out of this bonding time?

“I collect a lot of Batgirl and Wonder Woman merchandise, so I would talk to them about those characters as well as the various character toys would buy,” Sue shares. “They knew Wonder Woman because of Superfriends comics and Batgirl because of Tiny Titans. I would tell them all about the characters, and it was fun to see how much they absorb. I remember once my son heard the word ‘oracle’ and said, ‘That’s Barbara Gordon.’ [Oracle was the superhero identity Barbara Gordon-Batgirl used after being shot and paralyzed from the waist down by the Joker.]”

Sue’s comic book knowledge also is being expanded thanks to her daughter, who will tell her about online titles she should check out. And while her son is currently at a stage in which he enjoys playing Minecraft over reading anything, he still hasn’t abandoned superheroes entirely.

“My daughter is most likely the one who will continue on [being a comic book fan],” Sue says. “She is interested in female heroes such as Ms. Marvel and Batgirl. But I have to say the one show my son knows the broadcast day and time for is Supergirl. I’m excited to get him the comic.”

As was the case with Greenleaf and his father, Sue and her kids have the common ground of comic books, and the activities and special moments built around that echo the way older generations of baseball-fan parents would enjoy a visit to the ballpark with their kids.

“It makes for fun family time,” she explains. “Last spring, we spent each Saturday night watching the MCU [Marvel Cinematic Universe] movies in anticipation of the release of Age of Ultron. Now we are getting ready for Batman v. Superman. … We actually went to see Man of Steel for Mother’s Day, and the kids thought that was great.”