Hi. I'm Bailey, and I am a geeky parent.

A few months ago, before my daughter was born, the hubby and I were having a conversation in the car about baby's first words. And both of us, completely without any suggestion from the other, had thought of the exact same word to be the first word to teach our unborn child after he or she learned to say “mama” and “dada.” What was that word? “Shiny.”

As a geek it just reinforces the knowledge you've found the perfect geek to be married to when you and your spouse agree that the first word your first child should be taught, after "mama" & "dada", is "shiny".

Why “shiny”? Well, “shiny”, in the way we will teach our daughter to use it, comes from the show 'Firefly' and is used to mean something is going great, or something is nifty. Kind of the future, space-cowboy equivalent of calling something or someone “cool.” For example: “How are things going today?” “Everything's shiny!”

Why will we do this? Because we want our child, from the very beginning, to learn that it is OK to be unique. OK to be an individual who likes, says and does things that popular culture may or may not understand. Let her know that whatever she wants to be as she grows up, whether it be a geek, a nerd, a princess, a rock star, a hockey player, etc., that it is OK to chase dreams, whether or not they end up coming true.

And someday, when she is old enough to understand, I will show her this video where Wil Wheaton explains why it is so fun, liberating, exhilarating to be a nerd, and to passionately pursue the things that you love. And maybe, just maybe, through my example to my daughter, she, and other children will see that it is OK to be you and not what advertisements say you should be.