Gaming With Baby

No, this is not a rehash of our popular ‘Gaming with the Girlfriend’ series of staff blogs, it is a piece about the joys, pitfalls, and obstacles of being a gamer with a child; and in my particular case, a mum.

If you’re a parent reading this then you will know that having a child is a wonderful blessing and the life-changing impact that it causes is astounding. For a while, gaming goes out the window as routines are established (or not) and you adjust everything to accommodate your shiny new addition. But what happens once they are a little older (mine is now one) and you want to get back into gaming?

From a female perspective, finding other mums with a mutual interest in gaming is challenging to say the least. After attending numerous mums and baby groups, I found one lady who had played one game (Uncharted) on the PlayStation 3, and that was it. Aside from two of my best friends and yummy mummies, who are also avid gamers, and my Gears of War obsessed, lovely sister-in-law, I have only a few other lady friends who are big on gaming, but they don’t understand why staying up until 3am raiding is no longer feasible.

It saddens me that, in this day and age, finding fellow gaming mums is so hard. It seems that I know so many men and dads who are gamers, so why not mums? Is it really that there are so few women into gaming as a general rule? Or is it that ladies with a gaming hobby are less likely to want children? Perhaps mums are worried it’s not seen as a suitable hobby and keep quiet about it? Whatever the reason, it seems like there needs to be more communities out there that encourage and bring together gaming parents who need to find some like-minded folk.

Finding the time to fit in some Xbox or PC gaming is challenging, somehow it feels like focusing all your attention on something other than your child is wrong. So many times I have heard, “well, we all make sacrifices...” and while yes, that is true, there are many parents out there who make time for going out drinking or going to the gym, so why not a hobby that I can enjoy in the same room as my son, and even include him in.

It is this inclusion really, that needs to be embraced in order to maintain any sort of gaming longevity. When my partner Matt fancies a game of Halo, he sits Jacob next to him and gives him his controller (yes he has his own.) This way they both have a good time, and are also being sociable. When I want some PC fun, he sits on my knee and helps by hitting the spacebar every so often.

At the end of the day, families that are making the effort to include their children in their hobby and incorporate it into their lives in a way that creates a collective social experience for the entire household, are helping to raise children who will develop strong relationships with their parents as well as fond childhood memories. Of course the fact that they are raising a generation of kids with awesome hobbies and tastes is a big plus.

So you wonderful parents out there who are doing just that, speak out about your gaming pride, and perhaps you will find that more people are gaming than you realise. Let’s keep doing what we’re doing and hope that our kids don’t have the same problems that we’ve had.