Holiday trouble with my family :/ Snake related

[Vasiliki]

Had this happen with my boyfriend's family. I've wanted reptiles since I was a child (A butter corn snake, to be exact!) When I started dating my boyfriend, I realized I was in a financial situation where I could support this hobby. So I picked up a Crestie to start, due to ease of heat. Then I got a Leopard gecko as my first 'heat needing' reptile. Then a Gargoyle gecko. Found my dream snake and picked her up. Shortly after that, my breeder released a Pied male holdback for me, my second holy grail.

If you're keeping count, that's three geckos and two snakes. The Pied is a hatchling. The corn snake is my monster girl.

The family knew about the geckos, but once they found out I had snakes, the same thing happened. Judgement, freaking out, telling me I must be doing something illegal. Statements get tossed around like: "I've seen that show on TV! One bite and you're DEAD! Why would you do that?!" "Don't you know that that python will eat your cat if it has the chance?" "Why would you endanger yourselves like this?" "What's the point?" "Is this a cry for attention?"

All you can do is stand your ground during the emotional outbursts, tell them politely that you can give them information if they want it, but don't attack you for something you haven't done wrong. You can't force your mother to understand. No matter how many times you tell her, if she doesn't want to hear it, she's not going to listen. Period. All you can do is provide the invitation, the information and the willingness to talk to her. But she has to make the first step. Until they ask a question, the wall is going to be up and your attempts to 'educate' will fall on deaf or judgmental ears.

I invited my fiances family to come visit me during one of our educational events (I'm part of a local reptile society and we hold 4-7 public events every year). His parents didn't come, but his sister and brother-in-law did. They brought friends too. Once they started asking questions, holding them and seeing them in person, the judgments changed to curiosity. It was great. Since then, sure, they'll make passing comments whenever I mention wanting to get another one. But they don't lash out like they used to. Baby steps. I don't bring up my reptiles in conversation. I let other people ask questions. If they get rude, I stop answering questions. So it's all up to them and whether or not they want to change. If they do, great. If they don't, then that's their choice.