How do you find time to play video games as a parent of young kids?
Before my daughters were born, it was much easier to grab a controller and dive into gaming. I had so much more free time I could waste away in Rapture, the wasteland or Hyrule. But kids take up a lot of your time (and resources). Don’t get me wrong, I love my daughters more than Michael Bay loves explosions, but their existence has made it a lot harder finding the time to play.
So what does a relatively new mom or dad need to do to find the time needed to get some gaming time? Its not easy, but there’s some solutions.
Sacrifice sleep
Yes, I do this. Not only to get more gaming in, but to also take care of household chores, watch TV shows and movies that aren’t kid-appropriate, work on side projects (like Steem, for example) Though this is not a rookie move. You need to know how much sleep you need and don’t push yourself past that. Running on 3 hours of sleep because you were trying to finish a dungeon in Zelda or were in the zone in Overwatch is not worth it when you fall asleep at work the next day and drive a forklift into a pallet of Sunny D.
Buy a Switch
This has been a life-saver since I can grab the Switch and be in an out of games in seconds. Games are suspended when you power down, so you only need to flip on your console and you’re literally playing in just a few seconds.
Add the portability of the system that allows you to take your game to the toilet, on your commute, on lunch break, or to bed and you’ve got a system that can easily fit itself into your life in 5 minute spurts, and those little breaks can add up to an hour a day pretty quickly.
And Skyrim is coming to the Switch very soon.
Game with your significant other
When the kids are in bed, it becomes couple-time. Finding games that you both love to play is not only a great way to scratch that gaming itch, but it can be a great couples activity. We recently started playing Overcooked and its an absolute blast. In addition, it requires a lot of back-and-forth planning and teamwork, which is a great thing to practice in your relationship.
Avoid online games
MMOs and competitive online games are problematic because you can’t pause them. If you need to drop everything to dislodge crayon from your kids nose, you’re going to be a sitting duck. Its simply not feasible, unless you play these games when you should be sleeping (see rule #1)
I found when my daughter was born that the first couple of months or so were easy to play games cause she slept so darn much. Fast forward to her being 5 and now even though I want to play my xbox one and enjoy my favs (Overwatch, The division, or Halo 5), none of which I really want her playing or seeing me play too much yet...so instead I play with her. We have a wii U and play a ton of games on there (Super Smash Bros, Mario 3d world, Pikmin 3, Captain Toad, and more). It may not be the same as me getting to play my favorite games but I still get some gaming in.
So I say...try to involve your kids..but have some kid friendly games for now. I will sacrifice not being able to play some of my favs for a bit just to play Pikmin 3 or whatever she is into at the time with her. Thanks for the post :) Check out my page too if you like. Upvoted.
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everybody like gaming even a child 😃
Very nicely written mate!
I won't say sacrificing on sleep is good though and might backfire.
While I don't have a child yet, I'm pretty sure I will be one of those few parents that just WILL have the time. For a pretty simple reason - it's my job to play games and critique them :D
So if I don't play, there won't be no food on the table :D
Great post! Would you mind if I included it in today's "best of gaming"?
Absolutely and thanks again!
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