There are a couple of things every year that our family
earmarks and looks forward to each season. For the boys and I MomoCon has been
on that list for the past four years. They’ve loved every minute of it but always
left with the same question, “When can mom come with us”? This year the
schedules aligned and mom was able to attend MomoCon with us.
It’s important to point out that she’s not really into comic books, anime, cosplay, roleplay or video games. She enjoyed going to MomoCon because of how much fun the kids have had in previous years. Our boys are 9 and 7, they’ve seen a couple movies in the MCU and don’t know too much about anime, other than dad used to live in Japan and has some copies of that magazine in his office.
What they and the parents that I spoke with enjoyed about MomoCon is the atmosphere. During the daytime it’s great for all ages, has cosplay that is out of this world, but still OK for those younger audiences. Granted, there were some creepy clowns that gave out kids the willies, but they were the exception and even those costumes weren’t graphic in nature.
There were many instances of families that cosplay together;
some as young as little geeklings who were being pushed around in a stroller or
carried by mom or dad. Our two boys stayed for five hours the first day and
four hours the second day and had a different, but equally fabulous experience
each time.
They love the game area. There is every board game in the world at MomoCon for you to check out and play while you’re there. We started to play a Super Mario themed version of Trouble before the boys got distracted by some costumes and wanted to walk around. A couple hours later we came back through the gaming area and played Jenga.
Right beside that area is the video game area. This year it
was broken up into classic arcade games and Asian video games. When it came to
playing the games they were all in about the classic games. However, with an
eye towards the future they spent more time watching the Japanese console games.
They were peppering me with questions about how to play them, but I kept
referring them to one of the multitudes of people who were lined up to dance,
pound drums or touch cubes as quickly as they could.
Our kids are also 100% down with Con protocol when it comes
to vendors. They should touch nothing, ask lots of questions if they’re
interested and compliment those who are cosplaying near the tables. The merch
was jammed with all manner of KPOP, Japanese manga, anime and statues that
pronounce their enthusiasm towards it.
And it was all 100% family friendly. We heard worse language
on the train to the event than we did at MomoCon. There are some night time
events that skew towards college ages and up, they’re certainly a bit more risqué,
but well past the bedtime of a 9 year old. Perhaps it’s something that they’ll
enjoy in 10 years when they’re in higher education.
MomoCon happens in Atlanta ever year over Memorial Day
Weekend. It’s the friendliest con for families that you’ll encounter because it
has the real cosplay that elementary and middle schools will recognize, without
the gore or sexuality that might populate other cons.
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