Commenter Jopeter explores the joys of trying to balance gaming with a newborn baby in today's installment of Speak-Up on Kotaku.
So I became a dad roughly a week ago and my initial thought was "YES. Free from work, the kid will sleep all day and I can finally complete some of the games I have acquired the last couple of months."
Of course I was happy for becoming a dad, and my newborn daughter is so beautiful and all that, but this is a gaming site so let's stick to that. :)
It never occurred to me that I didn't have the time to complete these games while my girlfriend was pregnant and needed me all around and everywhere all the time, so how the hell would I succeed now that this little spawn of mine needed one of us every 2-3 hours 24/7. Adding to that my girlfriend got pretty beat up giving birth to our treasure so she needs a lot of rest atm. In other words: GF = vending machine for milk and I'm doing all the other fun tasks.
So how can I game while still having to take care of my baby? My friend with two kids, former hardcore WoW'er, said it was impossible, but I really wanted to prove that even though you get a new family member you don't have to give up on your hobbies or desires in life.
I found that the answer was divided.
Yes, my baby needs me a couple of hours each day and also requires me on standby, so I could just forget about raiding with my guild in wow and my character now has a well-deserved break from gear hunting. All other MMO's or any other games that require you available and 100% focused for a hours is a no-go.
In other words: Games with a pause-button are pure win, so I stick to those for now. Since I just bought my PS3 I had a good amount of games to complete, starting with the God of War collection. Fantastic games and I just started God of War 3. After this I have Uncharted 1&2 and Heavy Rain waiting for my attention.
Where do I go with this? Well my friends said it was impossible to be a gamer and a parent, and I proved them otherwise. It also turns out that the lights and sounds entertain my baby and I could swear I heard her first "giggle" while ripping the head off a Gorgon yesterday.
How do you combine gaming with kids? I'd love to know.
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