Gaming as a dad, how much time do you get?

lastv8

lastv8

lastv8

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Wife, new baby and dog + full time job and freelancing on the side. I don't have a lot of free time.
I've just got a new rig and for the first time in years i'm going to play Civ 6 until the early hours once everyone has gone to bed. How much time do you get?
 
It's really difficult to work/life balance. I'm a full time dad of 2, and one is a toddler so I'm always busy as I'm sure you can imagine. I have a gaming laptop, which is on pretty much all day. The only time I really get to play is when the wife comes in from work, and then only a short while really. I would stay up all hours if I could, but I'm dead by 5 most days.
 
Not much - but at this point in my life I dont mind too much.

Its been getting less and less as the months go by.

I have 2 kids (2.5 and 6 months) and a full time job. Most nights I very rarely get time to even start up the PC.

However when I do, because of the above, I have noticed my habits have changed. short games, things i can duck in and out of, are my go to.

Games like Overwatch and little indie titles are keeping me entertained enough.
 
lastv8 said:
Wife, new baby and dog + full time job and freelancing on the side. I don't have a lot of free time.
I've just got a new rig and for the first time in years i'm going to play Civ 6 until the early hours once everyone has gone to bed. How much time do you get?
Click to expand...

Least civ is a game you can save and step away from, (not that i havent played a game and "one more turned it" till my alarm went off for work the next morning once, back in my single life).

Its online gaming that takes the biggest hit, cant pause a match cause something comes up, cant tell the other people your playing with to wait 20 mins i need to do whatever.
 
An hour or two depending on what shift I'm on next day. Also depends on how much the wife kickes up about be being on the comp all night!
 
lastv8 said:
Wife, new baby and dog + full time job and freelancing on the side. I don't have a lot of free time.
I've just got a new rig and for the first time in years i'm going to play Civ 6 until the early hours once everyone has gone to bed. How much time do you get?
Click to expand...

Not much, I've got a 2 yr old with another on the way. I have also just bought a big upgrade for my PC, so at the moment the urge to game is significantly more than normal. Basically it happens after everyone else is in bed, usually after 10pm, maybe an hour or 2 until 12am. However, now it doesn't hold my interest for periods as long as it used to and certainly not every night either.

Sometimes I wish on occasion, just for one day, that I could stay inside all day playing games like I used to when single. However if you just changed "stay inside all day playing games" to drinking, watching football, cycling, play golf etc. then you would probably accurately describe every dad at some point.

I'm sure that when I'm older, greyer and richer the tech will be so amazing that I will be smashing Generation Z++ers on Battlefield 20 in VR whilst my teenage kids are out of sight, out of mind.
 
I think I did a thread just like this when my boy was born :D

My gaming life felt like it was taken from me :D..

Doesn't help that during pregnancy, my partner would go to bed at like 7-8ish as she was tired so I would get so much gaming in.

At the start I didn't get much, an hour here or there. Ours wasn't a sleeper.

Now he's 1 and a half, tends to go to bed at 7ish. So after that we both tend to relax and have some time to ourselves so I'll play some games, she will read. Around 9ish we come back together to watch a show on Netflix or something like that or carry on if we are both happy. I don't like feeling like I'm ignoring her so I triple check she's fine with it ;)
 
I've got back into it after our youngest got into a decent sleep routine. 3 Kids (3,7, 10), so pretty much full on family life until they're in bed.

Nowadays, on average, they are all asleep by 8.30-9pm, so I set at least one night (normally 2) for gaming, 9.30pm till whenever i'm done. Helps that the wife rehearses in a band once or twice a week, so I kinda time it then. Have the odd occasion where the wife's away on a girlie holiday, that's when I binge :D
 
Its hard as hell.

Two kids (8 and 4), and by the time I have completed the school run, gone to the gym, headed to the office and back home at 7pm, eat, help put the kids to bed..... to be perfectly honest I am too tired to game.

I probably get around 5 to 6 hours a week tops.....and some of that is with my son who I play the Lego games with on a Sunday.
 
Couple a night tops. get home at 7pm , daughter is normally always fast asleep from nursery. 4 nights work out till around 8/8.30, dinner, then tv with mrs who's in bed by 9.30, then i'm normally up till midnight with that time split between studying and gaming.

So yeh like OP its mostly when everyone is asleep!
Despite being more intense I definitely do more with my time nowadays
 
I still game quite a bit since my kids live with their mother and my other half is a gamer too so she "get's it", roughly speaking I would say maybe 20+ hours a week ish. Some weeks it's far less if we are really enjoying a particular tv show or something and other weeks it's more depending on what we are doing.

Stoner81.
 
Takes a bit of planning, otherwise it's just late-night after they've gone to bed. I'd say I'm still getting in 20+ hours a week but only an hour or so most week nights.

Now she's gone to her mother's for a few days down the country with the little lad so it's party central for me for a few days. VR setup in the living room, leaving work early, staying up late, even had a quick session one morning before work! It takes dedication :)
 
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