Being a gamer and a dad

GamingDaddy

GamingDaddy

GamingDaddy

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Joined
12 Apr 2018
Posts
109
Location
England
I've been a dad for nearly 7 months now and before the little bundle of joy was born I was a pretty avid gamer. Every new console and game that came out I had it, spent quite a bit on a gaming PC too and most of my time was spent mixing work and relationships with gaming.

Now that he is in the world he's everything in my life but I always look at my dusty gaming station thinking whether I'd ever get a chance to play longer than maybe half an hour on it.

Has anyone else been in this situation? How did you ever mix parenthood and a gaming hobby?
 
Balance,

Tend to have certain evenings available once kiddies are in bed and mrs is either out or doing her thing,don’t get as much time as I used to but not really bothered tbh,they grow so quick I tend to spend time with them.

Plus after a long slog of a day,prefer to just to check what’s on Netflix etc.
 
I have two children and a very understanding wife. I usually game twice a week whilst the children are in bed and the Mrs is watching trash TV. On usually 8 pm until 2-3 am.
 
As mentioned, kids sleep a lot. Our 3rd is due in June, I game pretty much from 7pm to 11pm. It helps my wife is a gamer too. Weekend day time I don't game but that's out of choice as we do stuff as a family, if we stayed indoors I could probably get away with it :p
 
Buy a switch. That's the only gaming I get to do now I'm a father, and it's great!

I could play more but I'm not willing to sacrifice raising my kids, and I already escape on the motorcycle whenever I can when the weather is pleasant in the Alps.
 
At the start it's hard. I remember having a similar realisation myself early on. I'm a huge souls game fan and dark souls 3 came out when my little one was like 4 months old. Back in the past I would have completed those games really quick but it took me like 3 months :D.

That was back when sleep was an issue, but for the last year and a half he's slept mostly 7pm through to 7am give or take if he's unwell etc. So now like other suggest it's a balancing act. If my partner Is happy I'll have a play while she watches a show or we will watch something together. My partner and son come first. I then tend to stay up every now and then once she too has gone to bed to get an hour or so in.

I would say I get 5 hours a week average depending on what we are doing.
 
It also helps on where you game, my office is downstairs so kids come in and sit on the sofa and can watch TV etc, I guess if you are playing games you can pause or aren't that fussed about multiplayer wise its easy to game whilst they mince about.
 
RadioactiveGimp said:
Balance,

Tend to have certain evenings available once kiddies are in bed and mrs is either out or doing her thing,don’t get as much time as I used to but not really bothered tbh,they grow so quick I tend to spend time with them.

Plus after a long slog of a day,prefer to just to check what’s on Netflix etc.
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Quote for truth.
 
My little boy is nearly 7 months old and at the moment we're still adjusting to the whole thing

I bought a switch(day 1) mainly because I thought it would be easier to still game but it's still rather difficult haha. I'm also quite a large fan of the souls games along with many other big jrpg's but I feel like it would be a really bad idea trying to start any game like that, I've been eyeing up Persona 5 for ages.

I've had my gaming PC there and thinking about selling that in parts and going for something like a GPD win and a 4k telly to keep the mrs happy
 
same here, I’m lucky that my little man goes down about 7 and then the Mrs likes on catch up on TOWIE and stuff like that so that’s my game time maybe an hour or so at nights and then a bit more in the weekends especially if I get a new game, then I work away for my work which is where the laptop comes in handy!
 
David Flett said:
same here, I’m lucky that my little man goes down about 7 and then the Mrs likes on catch up on TOWIE and stuff like that so that’s my game time maybe an hour or so at nights and then a bit more in the weekends especially if I get a new game, then I work away for my work which is where the laptop comes in handy!
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We're lucky if he goes down by 11, teething... :/
 
My little guy is 10 months old and i don't really get a chance to play any games in the day with work, the mrs and him. Although i usually have a hour or two session every other night but mostly friday and saturday nights. I do find myself just revisiting games i know well rather than playing new games as i just don't have the time to get better. That's a lot of FPS's out the window but i love american football so usually just play franchise mode on madden.
 
Got a 5 week old daughter and we stupidly moved house 2 weeks ago, so gaming is very low on my priority but shes sleeping on and off with me until midnight until we give her a feed and put her down for the night.
Playing games like new God of War? Forget it, can't dedicate more than the odd our but in anticipation I was due to build a new PC but instead ploughed the money into a Razer Blade. It isn't the most powerful but I still get the odd PC gaming in with decent visuals and frames. It's an expensive way of doing it but at the very least I'm very VERRRRY Slowly getting through Far Cry 5.. be done by Xmas 2022 at this rate.
 
Kids and gaming eh, you are missing one vital element here, the missus. Having children does all sorts of things to womens emotions and mental health, you need to be supporting her when you can too and not just sneaking off to game when you can.
PND can take a while to begin but it is very real and awful to watch so I would let gaming slide for a while, I have three daughters with the eldest being 9 now and to be honest I havent looked back as I realised computers have a place but games etc are not the end of the world and you actually look forward to the odd hour here and there rather than every night.There may be no tangible difference for some people but later down the line your relationship may thank you for it.
 
this is how I ended up with a PS VITA. My now 8 , Well I say 8 nearly 8 was born and I was never getting anywhere near the gaming time back then, so got a handheld to let me play games at work during lunch breaks and in bed whilst the now ex was asleep etc..

Funny how it all ended up, we split up - now my little girl has the PS Vita and loves to play on it, and we also share PS4 when I have her at weekends.

As for the missus and mental health - yeah. That is also very correct, why was I playing a PS vita in bed when the missus was asleep - well at the time she felt we should all go bed at same time, kids in bed for 6 - 7pm, adults in bed for 10pm, as a family. Wow did she ever have issue with dads and games consoles. Another story - but didn't work out, and we split and now I've got way more gaming time.

But anyhow, yes, you can try a handheld, and when the child gets older you can game together, if you have a great missus, which I'm sure u do, then hopefully she will also allow you to game when kids are asleep.
 
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