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So I'm going to attempt to bring my 3.75 year old to the FLGS. I figure he's good for about 60 minutes of rolling dice and playing with his matchbox cars. I'm wondering if anyone has any tips on gaming with small ones.

Don't count on anybody other than yourself to watch him. If he's grabbing miniatures then he may be fed to wild squigs.

olympia wrote:So I'm going to attempt to bring my 3.75 year old to the FLGS. I figure he's good for about 60 minutes of rolling dice and playing with his matchbox cars. I'm wondering if anyone has any tips on gaming with small ones.

Wait wait, a 4 year has the attention of a fly, almost as bad as teenagers. The moment you turn away he's going to boogie woogie down the hall. At your own home or a friend's where there are things and other kids, yea, but at a store, you're cruising for a bruising.

Frazzled, what's the low end would you say? 5?

Yeah I got a suggestion....don't! Most gamers who are at an LGS come there because no woman will have sex with thus they will never know the pains or joys of having kids and the others come there to get away from thier kids.

beowulfhunter wrote:Yeah I got a suggestion....don't! Most gamers who are at an LGS come there because no woman will have sex with thus they will never know the pains or joys of having kids and the others come there to get away from thier kids.

Nice summary... really though, freaking troll! So which are you if you don't mind me asking, and how did you miss the fact that you are totally wrong?

If you are being sarcastic I apologize.

In terms of the OP, I would follow Frazz's advice, and just not do it. You'll be able to tell when your kid is old enough, mainly due to their ability to listen to you when you ask them to. Fidgety, whatever, just not wandering out of the store or into the basement.

olympia wrote:So I'm going to attempt to bring my 3.75 year old to the FLGS. I figure he's good for about 60 minutes of rolling dice and playing with his matchbox cars. I'm wondering if anyone has any tips on gaming with small ones.

Don't plan on playing a game yourself. It will only end in frustration at best and charges of child abuse leveled at yourself at worst.

A player and generally good egg at our FLGS used to bring his kid and set them right on the table while we were playing "So she could get a good look at the game". That ended quickly and badly.

Keep your toddlers away from my $1000+ army please.

olympia wrote:Frazzled, what's the low end would you say? 5?

For what period of time Olympia? Again this is to an FLGS correct? At home its a completely different story.

At an FLGS I would not have an unsupervised munchkin there for more than 15 minutes under 7. Each child varies but thats a nice standard. As noted they will get bored quickly and start creating havoc. Its what they do-accept it and be proud of their havoc making skills.

Other things I tried to add into my post but got zapped:

1. Often times there is a mix of FLGS players. You'll likely have teenagers there. Ever been around teenagers when the boot of THE MAN is not firmly on their necks? They are smelly, cussing, loathsome creatures... (and I mean that in the best way possible ). Your bambino may discover some new words and delight in repeating them to Mom and grandparents. Remember if the Mom is not happy, ain't no one happy, and friend the Mom will not be happy

2. As noted, many in FLGS's have somewhat less developed social skills. This could lead to friction. If one of them gets snarky with the munchkin it could lead to negative consequences.

I'd say the lower limit is whatever age at which the kid understands not to make a lot of noise and knows not to simply pick up anything his hands can reach.

This could be as young as 6, though I know people well into adulthood who are not quite at that age yet either.

Basically, I'd treat it just like taking a child to a restaurant or a movie - if the kid's not behaved, it's a detriment to other peoples' enjoyment of what they're doing.

don't get pissed off when i swear, im sorry, ill try to keep it to a mimimum, but 8 years in the USMC didn't help.

I have a 1 year old, and that is why I bought/made two tables and just invite people to my place to play......

Frazzled wrote:
At an FLGS I would not have an unsupervised munchkin there for more than 15 minutes under 7. Each child varies but thats a nice standard...

I think it 's the first time I agree with Frazzled. He it absolutly right.

M_Stress wrote:

Frazzled wrote:
At an FLGS I would not have an unsupervised munchkin there for more than 15 minutes under 7. Each child varies but thats a nice standard...

I think it 's the first time I agree with Frazzled. He it absolutly right.

Well, yea! Can you tell my wife? She doesn't believe me.

y

Kids in a gaming store is a no go until they're old enough to clearly understand the phrase "Don't Touch!"

I'm not a parent so I'm not sure when exactly this happens, but I'd assume it's some where in the neighborhood of 12 years old.

I have a 12 year old and occassionally regret bringing him to the FLGS because of the influence of gamers less mature than he is. Then there's the occassions that I regret bringing him for his own actions...

These days I prefer to go alone...

olympia wrote:Frazzled, what's the low end would you say? 5?

I say it's pretty cruel to the kid to bring him along. There's this guy at one of the local stores who brought his 6 year old son with him to a tournament, and spent a lot of time yelling at the kid to stop touching things, sit still, whatever. I swear, if the didn't have like, 6" and 6 stone on me, I swear I would've hauled off and hit the d-bag. Yes, the kid was a pain in the ass, and even broke some (of his dad's) models cause he picked them up and vroomed them around, but seriously, the kid is 6, you brought him with you to a tournament that ran from 10-4, and the d-bag brought exactly nothing to keep him occupied. Even if they want to be good, at that age they have a short attention span, are very curious, and like getting into things. You can't just stick them in a corner and tell them to not move for six hours. 4 years old is even worse, and even if all the other players were well behaved, I wouldn't bring a kid that age along because it's just not realistic to expect them to stay perfectly behaved for the duration of a game.

As others have said before me, most of us go to the game store to escape our kids for a bit. If your kid is one of those one in a billion angels that do what they are told and sit in the corner and color/play with their toys then Id say by all means go for it. But if they are going to be grabbing stock off the shelves, crying, and trying to play with other peoples armies, then your basically trying to get yourself kicked out.

If the kid was a little older and was taking an interest in the game, then by all means bring em in. People bring their kids in all the time to my FLGS and the kids ask questions about the game, and most of us will explain it, but when people treat the place like a daycare expecting us to keep an eye on their kid when they are playing/shopping, dont expect to be welcomed again.

Bookwrack wrote:

olympia wrote:Frazzled, what's the low end would you say? 5?

I say it's pretty cruel to the kid to bring him along. There's this guy at one of the local stores who brought his 6 year old son with him to a tournament, and spent a lot of time yelling at the kid to stop touching things, sit still, whatever. I swear, if the didn't have like, 6" and 6 stone on me, I swear I would've hauled off and hit the d-bag. Yes, the kid was a pain in the ass, and even broke some (of his dad's) models cause he picked them up and vroomed them around, but seriously, the kid is 6, you brought him with you to a tournament that ran from 10-4, and the d-bag brought exactly nothing to keep him occupied. Even if they want to be good, at that age they have a short attention span, are very curious, and like getting into things. You can't just stick them in a corner and tell them to not move for six hours. 4 years old is even worse, and even if all the other players were well behaved, I wouldn't bring a kid that age along because it's just not realistic to expect them to stay perfectly behaved for the duration of a game.

Bookwrack quotes from the great book of Truthiness.

A guy in my club brought his kid to a store's apocalypse multi player apocalypse mega battle once, he was maybe 4 but he was very well behaved. His dad just gave him a few minis to play with, and he had a nintendo DS to keep him busy. The game went for a good 5-6 hours with no kid incidents. So, I guess your mileage may vary.

I usually don't bother posting but this post struck home. My kids spent an enormous amount of their early youth at the FLGS.

From basically birth until ges 2ish; easy to control a that point; never played games with them there though; not paying at least 100% of my attention to the game is rude to my opponent. One of my children is only 1-1/2; still head up there pretty often with him but only during the day and non-crowded hours.

Then from ages 3-5 I only took my oldest up there ocassionally. Usually only to BS with the owners or other gamers; still never played games.

Now my oldest is 7. I head up there more often now than between 3-5 with him; but now he's old enough to read and play his gameboy. This will entertain him for hours if need be; that said though I still don't play games.

Ending I want to say it's just rude to your opponent and potentially dangerous to your young child to have them in there and get into a game. The next thing you know your child will be across the room with an exacto knife. Trust me; I've seen it happen. Or they'll commit some other attrocity like stabbing holes into foam tabletops and terrain with scissors that they magically obtained. Also seen that happen.

Agreed with a number of other posters. It was about the time my oldest was 4 that I obtained a full size table in my basement and if I want to game when I can't get rid of my kids I invite them to my house. Hopefully it wasn't a desparaging read for you and maybe you'll get something out of it useful. If your child is almost 4 than they should be old enough to get the jist of some simple gameboy games. If you insist on being at the store with a child for any amount of time though regardless of their distraction you must keep a firm eye on them. I've heard my FLGS owners complain about some people who let their kids run frantic; but have complimented me on being opposite of that with my kids.

My .02 cents...

olympia wrote:So I'm going to attempt to bring my 3.75 year old to the FLGS. I figure he's good for about 60 minutes of rolling dice and playing with his matchbox cars. I'm wondering if anyone has any tips on gaming with small ones.

Laptop computer loaded up with 4 hours of his favorite cartoons, teach him to use earplugs, and bring along lots of snacks. Place him under the table at your feet, don't fret if he gets stepped on. The tread marks fade in a year or two.

Reminds me of the Academy kids who all shouted WAAAAGH! when it was declared. They had a big game to end the Academy that night, using the shop's models... Now, at my FLGS, these models are beauties. I saw a Stompa drop and I cried...

Don't bring the 4 year old. 10-12 year olds know better than to touch my stuff. I also have no problem telling a kid that old to NOT touch my stuff if they happen to forget. I'll feel like a d-bag telling some 4 y/o that. I already get uncomfortable when random people off the street walk in with their kids and their youngin stands near the table. It's like bringing your baby to a movie theater...YOU know better than that.

I think these are good points! If your significant other doesn't mind, maybe the child can stay at home. Of course you'll have to take her out to dinner to make up for it

I think you can start introducing them to the game at 10-12... prior to this I would think they could not be careful enough with the models, and also would be too young to see a lot of the tamer-looking armies.

That said, I took a painting course at the battle bunker, and was the only adult there. It was pretty painful playing a game with those kids... so if you can teach them well, the age will vary, for these kids I wouldn't want to have them around the game until they were much older. On the other hand, there's a guy whose wife and child are at the store often. The boy has a stool he stands on, and he's pretty well behaved and enjoys the game. So a lot depends on how you teach them

I'll put in that I stopped going to my FLGS because of guys bringing their kids to games. They'd get bored and I don't blame them. Also, because kids normally equals wives, they'd almost never stick around for a full game. I'm also lucky enough to have enough room at home to play games here however.

you know, pretty much every flgs i've been in has had a sign warning that if you didn't watch your kid, they'd sell it or feed it to the beasts that dwelled below or something.

My son loves to go on Tournament days. He's 5, we bring the DVD player and movies, and he either watches movies or visits with people. Some people don't want to talk to him and he quickly moves away, but mostly he has a great time and the adults have a great time, too.

And we've had incidents - the boy is 5, and he's learning how to behave in the world. He doesn't touch people's stuff without permission (that must be taught beforehand), but he is sometimes loud and can be goofy at times. It helps that a lot of our group are parents as well.

So 4 may be fine and 14 may be too young - depends on the kid and the enviroment at your FLGS.

My wife will often stop by when I playing in a tournament so my son (7) can see what's going on. Typically they try to come during the lunch break (so he can see the end of the first game or beginning of the second), so it's not distracting to me or the other players.

He's into the game, wants to learn how to play.

At 'Ard boyz prelims this year he watched me start up a game vs an IG air-cav army (6 valks, 3 vends, 9 hydra) and as I put my measily 4 BWs on the table he had me lean over and he said,"I don't think it's fair that he gets all those big vehicles and you only get 4."

That got a laugh out of the IG player when I told him that.

Allow me to throw in an opinion from the other side of the fence.

I'm a 19 year old college student, have a completed army and two more coming along nicely, and consider myself a productive member of wargaming society. My father also used to play. He allowed me to accompany him to the FLGS to pick up supplies, but never played while I was there or let me run around long enough to get in to any kind of shenanigans.

I showed a very early interest in the hobby (about age 5 maybe?) but whenever I would ask for a box of minis he would walk over to the snap-tite model kits and hand that to me instead. They weren't Warhammer, but they sure were fun. At first I just played with all the interestingly shaped parts. Then I would start to assemble them, and over time found myself able to completely construct a few. These were usually broken after about 2-3 hours of play, but there was always another one waiting when I finished a kit. When I stopped "zooming" them, I began to display them on my bookshelf. When I had a fairly impressive collection that included kits that required glue and paint, he brought home Battle for Macragge and the rest is history.

Sorry for the long-winded anecdote. The point is this: There is a difference between toys and models and until a child can discern this they're happier and better off in the toy store than the game store.