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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DaveStebbins" data-source="post: 1576423" data-attributes="member: 1427">I'm afraid I don't have any good advice to give. In my group, every member is a parent and we rotate hosting duties each game night, so there's almost always kids around. The thing that makes us not very helpful is, well, us. Due to schedule conflicts and only one gaming spouse among the six of us, we only game once a month. That makes game night as much of a social occasion as a gaming occasion. Off-topic conversations waste way more time than kids do. Once in a while I would get upset at how far off topic we wander, but then if someone gets me going, I lead the conversation away from the game as well. In the end, we're sort of self-stabilizing. Probably some people would like to be more game-focused than we are and others would like to be more socializing-focused but, on balance, everyone has a good enough time that we all show up every month.  So I guess my not-very-helpful advice is to try and realize that distractions are a part of life, especially for what most people see as entertainment or a hobby, and try not to get too hung up by them. If the atmosphere isn't conducive to a deep serious game, maybe lightening it up a little isn't a bad idea.</blockquote>