New Baby & Gaming

[dpmcalister]

I'm lucky in that I don't play at my house. That combined with an understanding wife (who also wanted to go out once a week (she's a Guide Leader)) we were able to come to an arrangement whereby we could both get a little "rest-time". Of course, there have been times I've had to miss games because my son hasn't been well (and in a couple of cases leave early because he woke up having had a nightmare and wanted cuddles from me - again, luckily, my game was only a 5 minute walk away).

All told though, family comes first, but I enjoy my weekly gaming session and am lucky enough to have a (non-gaming!) wife who understands (it doesn't hurt that I'm the full-time career for our son so she sees it as relaxation time for me )

 

[Gundark]

This depends on your kid. My first didn't cut into my gaming at all. We packed him to games and he would sleep. He was awesome at that age. My daugther was a little harder. Eventually we had to move the game to my house. The group didn't mind so it was cool.

Basically you find what works for you and your child. Babies aren't the end to gaming.

Oh and congrats

 

[Steel_Wind]

As mentioned above, New babies are *easy*. All they do is eat sleep and poop - and mostly it's just sleep.

Somewhere along the line, circa 6-8 months, they will begin to demand more attention for longer spans. That starts to get a little bit trickier- but manageable.

At 12-14 months when they start walking? Well...for the next 2 years or so after that, it's a definite struggle to game. If you are the only one looking after your child at that moment? Forget it. You might be able to play but DMing is out.

Spouse with you at the table? Doable. I know that for a fact as my youngest son is 20 months old and we've been managed to game since he was born under those precise conditions. I'm the DM. Without my wife at the table though - this would not be happening.

 

[dougmander]

It's different for each family.

Our beautiful daughter didn't start sleeping through the night until 19 months. Until then, I was lucky if I got a shower once a day, let alone time to play a game. Even now that my spouse and I are well-rested, we only play once every two weeks, for a couple of hours, after daughter's bedtime. I can't ever imagine playing D&D if I could be spending time with her instead. D&D is a game; a child is a miracle.

 

[Faerl'Elghinn]

Congratulations! New babies barely cut into gaming time at all; think of all the plotting opportunities that you'll have during 3am wake ups. While kids are in the squalling tube stage, gaming is still pretty easy. It's only when they top 2 years old that things become trickier.

This pretty much sums up my experience. I have 3 1/2 kids myself, and both my wife and I have been able to play fairly consistently throughout our marriage. It only really gets tough when they start putting all of your dice in the heating registers, biting the erasers off of your pencils, etc. I think you'll find that your baby girl will sleep enough of the time that you won't have much trouble gaming at all. You may have to take a few more intermissions than before, but all in all, you shouldn't experience much of a change.

Oh, yeah--congratulations, too!!

 

[Nightchilde-2]

I took off about six weeks when each of my kids were born, but I have a lot of time to work on game stuff at the office, so the lack of time at home hardly hurt at all.

That's pretty much what I did. Most of my gaming is done via OpenRPG, so even when my kiddos got older, it was still not too bad, save for the occasional minor emergency that had to be dealt with.

 

[Griffith Dragonlake]

It's different for each family.

Our beautiful daughter didn't start sleeping through the night until 19 months. Until then, I was lucky if I got a shower once a day, let alone time to play a game. Even now that my spouse and I are well-rested, we only play once every two weeks, for a couple of hours, after daughter's bedtime. I can't ever imagine playing D&D if I could be spending time with her instead. D&D is a game; a child is a miracle.

This pretty much sums up my experience as well. Between my job, my 3-year old daughter, my wife, and another adoption underway I only have Friday and Sunday nights 9pm until Midnight. I spend Friday nights playing Diablo II with one of my players from way back in the day and Sunday nights designing my next Grymwurld™ campaign. I have no idea when I'll get back behind the screen. The guy I play Diablo with does run a game for his teenaged son and friends on Saturday night. So there's hope for me!

 

[Skycast]

For me there wasn't much of a problem gaming when my kids were newborns or infants. It's become more of an issue as they've gotten older and have more activities and commitments. Besides me just want to spend time with them I also have to be available for these activities. Face-to-face gaming has pretty much gone by the wayside for me.

 

[Dremmen]

Babies (theyre now 2 & 4) changed my gaming life drastically: I only can play once per month. Life is just too busy to play weekly.

This echos my own experience. My little girl is turning two in May, and the boy is almost 4 months old now. She was very quiet as a baby, and I gamed frequently when it was just her. The boy forgets how to sleep, and takes between 1 to 3 feedings at night - we *hope* that he becomes a bit more cooperative in the next couple of months, and plan on beginning a campaign, playing once a month. And once a month is gravy for me - no *way* I'd get more than that in with family activities, house chores, planning and preparing for the game, sleeping, etc.

So we plan to arrange for my mom or her mom to take the kids that once a month we plan to game ( the wife loves to play too ). Other than that my wife lets me play some 40K on occassion, and get some painting in on my minis, and that keeps me happy

 

[Thad Enouf]

I don't know if anyone has brought it up but you should get some dice with padded edges so the sound is muffled.

And as far as gaming with a new baby in the house goes, you won't have to worry about it unless you play at any other time besides 3AM.

Seriously, though, newborns are great. But the really great thing about them is that they don't stay newborn forever. You'll never have your complete footloose and fancy-free lifestyle you were enjoying pre-birth but just marvel at the way nature produces new players. Roll up some stats!