So what do you think about this
Being a parent and at the same time, being a gamer.
And the childs I am refering are the small childs (age 1 - 6) something like that.

Do you give up games cause your life responsibility higher now? Or you are so scare of having a children cause it might burden your precious time on gaming? Or you can balance both.

Share your experince here.

I have a son, he's 10 months now. I played games when he was in his mummy's tummy, when he was newly born, even now.

Like anything in life, must learn to balance lah. When he's awake, I don't play so much because I want to spend time with him + show him other things to do. When he's asleep, I game. Easy as that.

I got a 1 yr and 3 months old daughter...

When I play a hardcore game (rpg, fps) I wil get her to hold another controller...coz you know small child like to mimic what we do...so she would just follow what I do...when she's bored...I have all her toys right in front of me so she would play right there and I don't have to worry bout her...

When I play less hardcore games, like Rockband 2 or Everybody's golf along with my wife...she would join us too...like get her to bang on the drums while I play the guitar and my wife be the vocalist...we would have loads of fun together....and all the while got a video cam to record us performing No doubt's Ex-Girlfriend or Don't speak and also Sunday Morning...can't wait to see her be a girl gamer....

But overall, I think I have changed my way of playing games to suit my current situation...definitely less hardcore games being played in a stretch of 6-10 hours like when I was a bachelor....

But more bite sized gameplay...like 1-3 hour a day spread into 2-3 session a day...and most of the time at night when both me wife and the princess are a sleep...

How you guys got so much time?
I hardly get any time for gaming during the weekday, maybe 2-3 hours max, before i hit the bed. All until weekend, i got some precious time with the game i had, but was balancing between wife and gaming at the moment.... But still.... with a child... it seem like a harder task then stealth through armies in MGS4 lol...

May be I should learn something from here

2-3 hours on a weekday? You are a champion.

Well, for me my wife supports my hobby - she sez it's better than a lot of things, so I'm lucky there. Most weekdays I clock 0 hours. SOMETIMES, 1 hour a night on weekdays IF AT ALL.

Weekends I have more time, but also I try to limit it since games DON'T GROW UP/GROW OLD/GET BORED of you - family comes first, and when they are doing their own thing I settle into my favorite game for an hour or two.

I have a 3 yo twin who love playing LBP, when they got the controllers they will ignore their papa who eagerly to take his turn for playing. Usually I have to wait till they sleep and finally my turn around midnight...and my youngest son sometimes need me to change his diapers or make his milk during online gaming session, but all of that it's not that matter, really

Probably when they finally got into school, maybe I have my own peaceful gaming hour, with normally parent excuses ..such as 'go to sleep! school tomorrow'

Haha that what i meant... that why i indicate child age between 1-6, after that, they most probably end up in kindergarden much easier to control (hopefully) lol...
The worst i can imagine is age 1-6... time the real factor.... kinda terrified if unable to balance thing out. I am not crazy gamer, but like it as a hobby, but when get too into the games, i sometimes cant hear anything happen around me lol...

yeah kinda afraid I can't hear anything when playing games, that's why I don't use headphone though..so I put his baby court in the same room where I use for playing games,..easier for both of us!

can't imagine if i'm married hehe.. and have kids...
but for the moment at my house have 3 "Son Fruit".. always crying wanna play my PS3
but mostly all the time i juz turn on my PS2 and juz let them playing themself...

jeez.. so complicated for a single guy .. if they growing probally they will be a hardcore gamer
better control them before their are so addicted to games..

well i was same as bro but i have 1yrs old daughter now that i always let her hold my old ps2 controller while i play my ps3 game... bcoz when she was in my wife tummy... my wife was already always spend her time playing psp... so i think my daughter was a expert playing game when she grow up haha.... n time i spend my game was only when she was sleeping n it is the best time to enjoy my game.... same as my wife still holding on to her psp...

me... used to be a hardcore gamers, clocking at least 3 to 4 hours of gaming each day, while still a bachelor.

after married, clocking down to 2, 3 hours per day, and I only play games after me wifey went to bed.

Now... with a year old daughter n a month old son, I haven't touch my consoles for months, ever since the birth of my son.

You'll hardly got time and energy to play games during the first few months of your baby's arrival.

But dun let marriage and kids scares u, for me it's the best thing ever happen to me, only then its gaming in second

yeah i agree after having kids for me family is 1st.... n i dun mind spending all my time to my daughter n wife! and game i will spend my time on it while they are having a good dream time... but my wife will join me playing games! bcoz we both are hardcore gamer also haha lucky i think...

I'm 15 years old and I got carded by my mom for playing Call of Duty 4
Luckily I got the Australian one which is 15+,so I showed it and my mom was all "OH FINE".

You don't know how hard it is to hide GTA 4....

still trying to impress my wife with my ps3 but she always reply 'meh'..but hey, its good baby sitter after all

Gosh, i guess is up to giving up gaming (or maybe temporary?) or family? Kinda scary thinking of it

no need to, @jen, I guess it depends how you balancing your time with you family, yeah? like me, I spend time with my kids cos I also got the same hobby, v'games and toy lol..even I can manage my time with my friends playing futsal after work

i am not giving up games for anything. thus i do what i want, when i want. i compromise for nobody.

If u r a hardcore gamer, your kids will be like you.

Haha, my dad started gaming in the 70s,
i end up.... u know, another game-otaku like him.

Those days he game on Atari and Apple II,
we still keep the Apple II.

Believe it or not, I started gaming on a very small computer called the Sinclair ZX81, then I moved on the the ZX Spectrum, Apple II, 8086 PC, 286 PC, Nintendo Entertainment System, Sega Master System, Sega MegaDrive,486 PC, SNK Neo-Geo Advanced Entertainment System, Pentium MMX, PSX, Pentium III, PS2, Pentium IV and when I got fed up of upgrading my PC every 2 years just to play the latest games, I finally settled on my current gaming rig, the Playstation 3. I never played any PC games since I bought my PS3 and if Sony releases PS4, I will probably buy it when the time comes.

This post has been edited by nwk: Dec 17 2008, 08:46 PM