babsitters and gaming

[Nathal]

I dress my children up in period-clothing and use them as minis. You wouldn't believe how hard it is to teach a toddler when it's okay to take an attack of opportunity.

That's priceless

 

[khyron1144]

I do not have children.

My couple of years older cousin has a kid who is now five.

I seem to recall a game night or two at the place in which they live when said child was more like one year old, maybe a bit more. In at least one instance, both he and his wife were gaming. They did have built in baby-sitting available in the form of living with my aunt and uncle (the cousin in question's parents).

So move back in with your parents. Just kidding, but boy does my family really have that boomerang generation thing going on.

 

[Firebeetle]

Question for parents: I'm curious how many of you play with your wife or husband, thereby requiring a babysitter to watch your toddlers. I had to call off a game tonight because there was nobody willing to babysit my 15-month old, and because my wife and I both play these games, neither wants to leave the other the task of babysitting.

Couldn't you roll for it or something? Seems cruel to cancel the game when there are TWO of you.

I'm a teacher, I always get babysitters from former students. I've really gotten some terrific babysitters this way. If you have a teacher friend, I would ask them for potential babysitters. You're looking for intelligent, responsible children who keep themselves clean and act how you would want your children to act.

Good luck!

 

[bento]

Another (more expensive) solution is to find a local storefront babysitting service like "Playtime for Kids." My wife and I drop our kids off there when we want to go have dinner out or do some birthday / holiday shopping. A local gymnastic place also hosts "all night fun" events that run from about 7 to 11 that we some times use.

But since my wife doesn't play (nor cares to) it's a guys night out for me.

 

[Dremmen]

My wife and I are going to get back into gaming after having our second child. We both game, and I'm the DM of the group. The plan presently, since we are planning on gaming once a month, is to have either her mom or mine take the kids for the day.

I'll report on how that works out once we start playing.

 

[Templetroll]

We took our daughter with us to the game. We set up a place for her, with her toys and my wife and I sat nearest to her. we could tend to her when it wasn't our turn in battles.

Early on we learned it was no problem with noise. She fell asleep at a game, we moved her into a nice quiet bedroom and by the time we had walked back out to the game she was awake. Brought her back out and *zonk* she was snoozin' again!

 

[TheYeti1775]

When I found a group after 3E came out, I tried getting my wife into it as well.

We hosted the games, he was about a 1yr old, and one of the other girls was a single mom with a girl about 3 months younger than our son. Had one other couple in our group, and they didn't mind the kids playing on the kids side of the basement as we played.

Lots of baby toys, and thick comforters let them play with each other and not feel 'confined'. They could watch us and vice versa.

Nowadays, the wife doesn't game. She is more of the 'hack-n-slash' type, so in depth stories don't interest her. So I have my guys night out, and she gets her time out with her girlfriends. Whoever is home plays with our son, who is starting to collect the Star Wars minis.

 

[Morrow]

Both my wife and I are members of our gaming group. Our son is almost one. Gaming is always at our house. Evening games start after he's gone to bed. Weekend afternoon games just have to be a little more flexible. Sometimes he'll play happily by himself in the same room that we game. Sometimes one of us will divide our attention between playing our character and playing with the baby. We couldn't do it if the rest of our group wasn't baby friendly.

Morrow

 

[pawsplay]

We game out our house. I am the GM, she plays. We have three kids, ranging from six months to five years. Typically, they go to bed early in the evening.

 

[1upus]

Man,
It's kinda great to see there is gaming after kids

Expecting our first born in about 3 months and I'm not sure how this will affect life. My wife has taken time off gaming at the moment to set the house up I'm sure it's the nesting instinct and it's better if I'm not in the way as she organizes. We just can't get in sync with that idea.

Not sure if our group will be so understanding. Everyone in our group is either past kids, or wont have any, so here's hoping once the little one arrives, we can work something out. But hearing all our stories has given me hope

Thanks guys