Finding time to pwn with a baby on board

kinger8938 · 13 Jan 2016 at 12:31

Just had our first! Still getting used to the sleepless nights etc. Just wondering what other gaming dads do about fitting it the hobby around the kids!

Might sound a bit selfish lol, i knew my gaming time would drop off in these early weeks and thats fine! Just wondering where other dads fit in the most gaming time? Late at night i imagine?

Juggy1985 · 13 Jan 2016 at 12:35

I basically stopped completely for 3 years! Dont want to game while he awake as i spend that time with him, then by the time he goes bed i watch abit of telly n go bed then repeat!

He's getting into the wii u now he's 4 but its only during winter, when the weather perks up no console!

cheesyboy · 13 Jan 2016 at 12:36

2 kids, age 5.5 and 2.5. I game between about 6-12 hours per month, which all occurs after the kids and Mrs Cheesyboy are in bed. I choose my games carefully (no good doing a 100 hour game like Witcher 3 - that's a whole year of gaming), and don't keep playing if I'm not enjoying it.

To be honest, it's not that big a problem - I've not been all that into gaming since I left uni and stepped into the world of full time work.

BS Dave · 13 Jan 2016 at 12:38

you have to wait until they start to go to bed properly really. Get the baby monitor and put it right next to your computer monitor so you can see any led display it has - you need one with a visual representation...

The best way to get this time is let your missus go out while you 'look after the baby'.

It's also a good idea to get the baby used to milk from a bottle so your missus can go out. She'll thank you so much. Make it a regular thing for the baby and they'll never get out of the habit of it...lots of people do the last bottle of the day (or the first one when they wake up after going off to sleep at night - about 1am) - this will give you missus a chance to get some proper sleep and stop her going mad...

Hope that helps

Josh · 13 Jan 2016 at 12:40

Juggy1985 said:
I basically stopped completely for 3 years! Dont want to game while he awake as i spend that time with him, then by the time he goes bed i watch abit of telly n go bed then repeat!

He's getting into the wii u now he's 4 but its only during winter, when the weather perks up no console!

Pretty much this, said to the wife after my eldest turned that I need some sort of hobby and she agreed. Little did she know what I was planning.

I try and get them off to bed and game in the evenings and some weekends during the day when the are off playing.

Good luck though, it won't be easy.

kinger8938 · 13 Jan 2016 at 12:40

Juggy1985 said:
I basically stopped completely for 3 years! Dont want to game while he awake as i spend that time with him, then by the time he goes bed i watch abit of telly n go bed then repeat!

He's getting into the wii u now he's 4 but its only during winter, when the weather perks up no console!

Thats my feeling too, i mean he sleeps a lot during the day at this very young age! Just over 2 weeks atm, but then its not practical to try and fit it in between feeding and helping my patner while im off. And yea we have found in the evening between say 6 and bed we sort him out if needs be and he sleeps again then we eat and watch a series or something, done making a murderer since we got him home. And then after that we get as early a night as we can as hes become a bit of a nocturnal baba! Sleeps loads at day time and is up a lot at night

*like right now my partner is having a bath and a rest while in holding the little chap watching loose women. My life has changed

kinger8938 · 13 Jan 2016 at 12:46

BS Dave said:
you have to wait until they start to go to bed properly really. Get the baby monitor and put it right next to your computer monitor so you can see any led display it has - you need one with a visual representation...

The best way to get this time is let your missus go out while you 'look after the baby'.

It's also a good idea to get the baby used to milk from a bottle so your missus can go out. She'll thank you so much. Make it a regular thing for the baby and they'll never get out of the habit of it...lots of people do the last bottle of the day (or the first one when they wake up after going off to sleep at night - about 1am) - this will give you missus a chance to get some proper sleep and stop her going mad...

Hope that helps

Good tips and yea i agree, its too early for him to have any routine really, and especially as he is in our room for the first part of his life it makes it all a bit more difficult to work around! I think i will just do what i am doing and fit in an hour or so if i can and not worry about it. And then when hes sleeping at night in his own room i can go back to staying up after misses goes to bed for an hour or so.

Maybe ill stop impulse buying games from key sites. Though since hes been home iver purchased diablo 3 and the addon, dragons dogma and the new TR. Wasnt thinking at all lol but on the flip side that will last me blooming ages now so thats actually a good thing!

I got resident evil 4 in steam xmas sale before he was born and its all ive played when i can since. Playtime is at 6 hrs, so thats pretty telling

chroniclard · 13 Jan 2016 at 12:49

Better now son is older, almost 8 and I built him a PC for christmas, we have Friday night gaming and pizza night.

Otherwise its either when they go to bed(and wife does) or weekends when I get a spare hour.

Minstadave · 13 Jan 2016 at 12:50

I sneak an hour or two in every couple of days once the little one is tucked up (11 months old).

Life changes, your free time is over.

Kyrne · 13 Jan 2016 at 13:00

Aye myself and the wife have just started to get back into gaming, little ones about to go 4

GBRusty · 13 Jan 2016 at 13:00

This is easier to say than do but enjoy the kids whilst they're kids too. They really do grow up fast and you wonder where the time went.
But having said that I found that splitting up with my ex helped

We're on a good footing now so when I have him (he's 9 now) we play side by side on PCs and usually try to play the same games in co-op mode.
Occassionally we sprinkle the gaming sessions with actual outdoors stuff as, again, they grow out of wanting to do stuff with dad pretty fast.

Lokai · 13 Jan 2016 at 13:04

Kids 4 and 2 and i pretty much just don't game any more, any free time i get, usually on an evening i generally have other stuff to do. I probably game around 4 hours a month now.

Gregster · 13 Jan 2016 at 13:20

BS Dave said:
you have to wait until they start to go to bed properly really. Get the baby monitor and put it right next to your computer monitor so you can see any led display it has - you need one with a visual representation...

The best way to get this time is let your missus go out while you 'look after the baby'.

It's also a good idea to get the baby used to milk from a bottle so your missus can go out. She'll thank you so much. Make it a regular thing for the baby and they'll never get out of the habit of it...lots of people do the last bottle of the day (or the first one when they wake up after going off to sleep at night - about 1am) - this will give you missus a chance to get some proper sleep and stop her going mad...

Hope that helps

Well said and spot on. Respect :cool:

Liquid_Entity · 13 Jan 2016 at 13:20

My boy is almost 4 months now and we moved him out of our own room in to his nursery. All 3 of us have much better sleep now. We watch a bit of tv between baby going to bed and the missus going to bed and then I get an hour or two before i need to sleep but I rarely game, just watch sci fi stuff or family guy.

kenny_st · 13 Jan 2016 at 13:33

with 3 kids youngest is 1 year old and oldest is 10 years I get about 30 mins of a night and sundays as its winter a couple of hours then my eldest pesters me as he wants to play a game

kinger8938 · 13 Jan 2016 at 15:15

Cant wait for him to be older so we can play together but yea i also will cherish these early days too! Sounds like im doing it the right way, put him and her first and then if the chance pops up i can fit some gaming in, its not bothering me really but its 'my thing' so i will just get used to this new routine and do what i can

Steveocee · 13 Jan 2016 at 20:48

I'm on child 3, all I'll say is early morning feeds and being at work are a good thing.
Child wakes at 3.30am, feed, change, cuddle, it sleeps.
You then have between 4 and 7.30 to game every day!

I did this with all 3 of mine.

ci_newman · 13 Jan 2016 at 21:11

In the evenings, after they've gone to bed

skiersteve12345 · 13 Jan 2016 at 21:17

this thread makes me hope that im a jaffa

varkanoid · 13 Jan 2016 at 21:58

Geez you guys you always find a way to game. My two are 3yrs and 6yrs both have a laptop each both have Steam Accounts and they play racing games mostly although Hasbro Battleships is a big win at the moment. What with that, Cbeebies website, CBBC website, Childrens I Player etc. Just make sure YOU control what they can access. They love watching me play World of Warships. We also have 3 way LAN racing mash ups on Next Car Game and Flatout 3.

With the first one he was a hungry baby so I got about 4 hrs sleep a day if I was lucky. You get conditioned to it. So much so after the 11pm feed I couldn't be bothered going to sleep as I knew I would be up again at 1am/2am so that was my gaming time every night. Then after the 2am ish feed that was my sleep time till about 6/7am then up and off to work. That was the first six weeks solid because he needed feeding just about every 2 hours. It was a little like an enforced routine.

Second one it was a bit easier as he wasnt a hungry baby and slept more through the night so my gaming time was an hour or two between midnight and 6am. Now they are older gaming time is after 9/10pm upto whenever. I thought I was a very light gaming till I read this thread ! Thanks!