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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Micah" data-source="post: 2454971" data-attributes="member: 16412">How do you split your attention?Well for some people it is easier than for others. In a loose generalization it tends to be easier for girls to multi-task than for guys. I play with my husband and when we have our three toddlers/preschoolers with, it does distract us. Usually, child interruptions go to the parent who is not on an active turn, or closest (to the kids) if we are all involved in combat. We know each others character sheets rather well and are not afraid to play the absent players hand for a couple of rounds. If something looks like it will take a critical character decision, the group is very good about waiting. In fact we have a very understanding group of friends who play.It's not too bad with infants. You can roll the dice and hold a bottle usually simultaneously. You can bounce them on your knee or cuddle them and respond to DM questions with a little more work.Once they get to about six months it gets harder to hold them at the table. It becomes a game to keep the dice from being grabbed and swallowed, the battlemap from being yanked, etc. We started gaming at around 8pm and played until midnight once the kids got to this stage. Not ideal in some ways, but it usually gave us time to put the kids down before we started. You will soon understand the incredible feeling of freedom that comes once the kids are asleep in bed for the night. It's a feeling only parents relate to.When we gamed at the DM's house nothing beat the pack n' play which doubled as a portable crib/ containment device.The one year old to three year old stage has been the hardest. They are mobile (can get into anything - including the safe zone on top of the refrigerator), no longer content to sleep at someone elses house, particularly if there are other children involved, and too young yet to get into long movies and Nintendo, and they want to eat all the snacks at the game table.Light at the end of the tunnel seems to be showing in the four to five range.The hard thing is that babies and small children want attention - your attention and they've a pretty good idea when they are getting it. To a certain point you will need to wait and see how you're little ones react. Some kids are content to swing or sit in an exersaucer close to the table. Others are not happy unless you are walking around bobbing them up and down, still others, in the case of collic, are unhappy no matter what. Your own ability to focus on the game is going to be highly dependent on what your children are like. Because no one can concentrate on character sheets with a child who's in a full blown wailing session. And with two - you'll find that when one cries it's pretty likely that both will take up the pasttime. We call it "sympathetic detonation" around here.</blockquote>

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