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I was just thinking to my self, That if there is something i want to learn from people with kids, it is how they are able to game while watching their kids. How do you guys and gals do it? I have a 19-20 month old and the only way i can war game is if Elmo is on the tv or if he is with his mother. Also, I figure there isn't much of a place on dakka to talk kids and war gaming, So i figured this would be a good place to talk about how kids ruin the whole game and we love them for it.

Story time!!!

So i was getting models ready to put into a transport, I had all my models on a tray. I am sitting there and my kid comes running in. He hasn't figured out how to walk on pillows yet, So i try and catch him before he does a head dive into my tray. While trying to do this i manage to knock over the tray, breaking Every Hq i have. You know, the models that the most time was spent on. It was a war zone the likes that my models will never see again.

Of course in the middle of a game i was playing my kid ran off with my rhino. I looked away for half a second and in that time he managed to sneak up steal a rhino off the board run into another room and figure out that he worked well as a toy car.


So i just wanted to hear your stories and how you deal with your own little daemons.

How old was the little tyke? Too young for a caning?

Henners91 wrote:How old was the little tyke? Too young for a caning?

Haha!

I personally have a big chain nailed to an iron peg outside, and before I start painting I chain the little bastards up outside for a few hours*

*Matty is currently childless, put those chains away you fool!

As the resident youngster (16), I can tell you that I love playing with my dad. He's the one that got me into gaming (We used to play DOOM together) and he loves to paint some models with me.

If your kid is stealing your rhino, it's because he's interested in the game. Get him the Paint Kit for the newbies. He's love it, and you two can hobby together, and bond.

Or he wants to wreck it....Atleast in my experiance.
Until they are like 7 or 8 kids tend to not be able to really understand that they are fragile mdels that are not meant to be handled excessively.
I base this off my nieces and nephews who are not allowed in my room because they have wrecked my models.

I have one gaming friend with kids (6 months and 3 years). We only game at his house when his wife is home to watch his kids or his wife has taken the kids out.

Otherwise, it's just too distracting.

How do I game as the father of a nearly 2 year old? I don't, simply put. The amount of free time that I have has dwindled to almost vanishing point. Unfortunately, it's one of the (many) sacrifices you have to make as a parent. It does get easier as they get older, so I'm told.

This is why my children will be grown in vats.

hotsauceman1 wrote:Or he wants to wreck it....Atleast in my experiance.
Until they are like 7 or 8 kids tend to not be able to really understand that they are fragile mdels that are not meant to be handled excessively.
I base this off my nieces and nephews who are not allowed in my room because they have wrecked my models.

Eh. If it's a child and parent, it might be different than two younger kids.

First thing you will have to get use to is that you will be gaming less. Let's face it, you will be doing less of anything you use to like to do. Fact. Sorry to break it to you. What I have found is that you will just need to plan ahead, and work with your support partners to make sure you still get time to do your gaming stuff.

I have found that things get easier as they get older. My daughter started playing Gorkamorka and other games with me in her late 5's, but different children maybe acclimated to start at different times.

She started helping me build model terrain and other small projects at about early 7, and she started doing some painting around the same time. As your kids get older, it gets easier to integrate them into your hobbies.

Just because you are painting or sculpting little men, doesn't mean they can't be doing their own similar art project at the table with you. However, you will still want to keep those scheduled times for when you want to have soem more adult orietned gaming/friend time.

I get some time every once and awhile to catch a game. Not very much and its rushed because of where me and my kids mother are in the courts. Other than that i get some time to do things. Just smaller amounts of time. Like right now the kids a sleep so i have some time to just relax. Right now it wants to play with the models and everything. Last time i was painting terrain at the table he brought over his markers and coloring book and i sat him up with me. The only problem is that he wanted to use my paint brush, (a normal house paint brush covered with house paint) to paint his coloring book.

Hes a pretty good kid most times. Other times he gets into a lot of trouble. He almost broke a friends battle barge. And he runs away with my masking tape when i need it. But over all its all good.

My kid is almost 2 years old. So when it comes to him helping with any thing i am doing it turns out really bad. His aunt bought him a plastic saw and work bench, He came up to me with it while i was cutting foam, and started to tear up my foam with it. Believe it or not it cut it though. I find tricking him into watching tv while eating chicken nuggets gives me about an hour a day to do things. And right now he doesn't wake up until an hour after i do, So i get some time to post things in the morning and random times during the day.

I just figured, People would like a place to post about kids in war gaming. but good times a coming.

I am not a parent, but we have a few that play games at the LGS. They bring their kids when they play. Two of them with children in that 1-4 year bracket.

The smallest of them spent most of her time in a stroller, or being held by her dad until recently.

The other, his father brings a laptop, snacks and toys. Then lets his child watch endless episodes of back yardagans, until the entire group of gamers at the store are humming that darn theme song.

Another has an older child, who at the age of 7-8 started learning 40k and Battletech, and now plays regularly with the rest of us.

All of these are acceptable to our local peoples. Because if it was not acceptable, we would lose a gaming friend.

Hmm...well I have been a parent for a whole....4 days now and as my gaming time is rare at best I am expecting to to reduce even more! Hopefully I will still be gaming when he is old enough to play so can enjoy it with him.

Congrats, Bloodfever!

Being a parent is hard work. Expect to lose a lot of mini's to the movable black hole you call a baby...

One of the things I have found helps is to be married to a fellow gamer... We also plan our gaming times around the kid(s) bed times...

For 40k, this usually means that games are a bit smaller, as they start later.

Hopefully, with being in a new area and all, I'll meet a like minded "home" gamer, and get some games in that way, even after number 2 arrives (in a couple weeks)

Step 1. Find a community hall with more than one main room.

Step 2. Find teenage girl(s) that are good with small kids [sorry to be sexist but teen girls are better at this] and want to make a bit of cash.

Step 3. Book the hall with a number of other gamer parents and club together to pay for the creche facility in the other room. Provide toys and stuff for the kids to do in one room and set up gaming tables in the other.

Stop moaning about the problem and make a solution.

On a personal note: My kids (21 months and 32 months) have a bed time (7pm) so that my partner and I can get own stuff done. We NEVER get the models out when the kids are about and our hobby gear is stowed in such a way that it is physically impossible for them to get any of it out. Would you trust the little tyke in my avatar with your minis?


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Bloodfever wrote:Hmm...well I have been a parent for a whole....4 days now and as my gaming time is rare at best I am expecting to to reduce even more! Hopefully I will still be gaming when he is old enough to play so can enjoy it with him.

Congratulaions. Here's a tip:never pass up the opportunity to get some sleep.

Bloodfever wrote:Hmm...well I have been a parent for a whole....4 days now and as my gaming time is rare at best I am expecting to to reduce even more! Hopefully I will still be gaming when he is old enough to play so can enjoy it with him.

CONGRATULATIONS!!

Ensis Ferrae wrote:One of the things I have found helps is to be married to a fellow gamer... We also plan our gaming times around the kid(s) bed times...

For 40k, this usually means that games are a bit smaller, as they start later.

Hopefully, with being in a new area and all, I'll meet a like minded "home" gamer, and get some games in that way, even after number 2 arrives (in a couple weeks)

This. Now I am not a parent or anything but I still don't paint when my girlfriend has nothing to do. However now she has got into crafts and knitting etc. I can paint at the same time.

Sonophos wrote:
Step 2. Find teenage girl(s) that are good with small kids [sorry to be sexist but teen girls are better at this] and want to make a bit of cash.

I don't know what this has to do with gaming, but i like where it is going.

Bloodfever wrote:Hmm...well I have been a parent for a whole....4 days now and as my gaming time is rare at best I am expecting to to reduce even more! Hopefully I will still be gaming when he is old enough to play so can enjoy it with him.

First child? If so congrats. You'll find that the horror stories aren't so bad. There are enough good times to make you happy.

Yup i finally feel like an old man. Yesterday i am playing with the spawn of evil and he is climbing on me. No big deal, He sits down with force right on my lower back and BAM, i can't walk right and can barley sit down. Good times... And to think i am not even 24 yet. I keep models away from the kid, Not because the models will get trashed but for his safety. Who knows what will happen to him if he trashed my models... This is a joke mind you. But really, Warhammer models can hurt like hell if you step on them and the likes.

My son, 7, likes to watch and wants to play all the damn time. So thats easy. When my daughter was really little, like always needing someone to watch her, it was a PITA if the wife wasnt around or if her and I were playing. But now shes nearly 4, so its pretty much PeppaPig time!!!!!! And Im golden

I hope to get my kid out side more than me self. But I live in KS, Which means who knows what the weather will be like day to day. If the kid wants to play then he can play if not, All the better. I have never heard about some one making enough money playing warhammer to support their parents. Come on foot ball star (American foot ball) That would be the day.

I used to run simplified games for my two sons when they were pretty young (5-6ish) and my daughter. My daughter (now 9) regularly helps me paint terrain and base minis, and has painted a few minis on her own. She enjoys the heck out of playing anything I set up for her, but likes Pirates, Zombies and Lord of the Rings the most right now.

One word for you - Biotitan.

Get your kid a pink hat, some purple face paint and take them allong as part of your force. Feed um up with e numbers and cola and tell your opponent "sorry, the synaps link is broken. Hes working on instinct".

The other option, at a young age keep your gaming untill after bed time or when someone else can look after him. Everyone in my gaming group understands the kids come first. If one of us with kids needs to change plans because of them so be it, but both the parants in each partnership with kid/kids understands that you need time away from the kids and doing your own thing, so we have a game night once a week, the mothers (in all our cases the mothers are non gamers) all have there own nights off to do whatever they do in each case.

Its just about time management. Do the gameing when you can get some free time (agree that with his mother) and do your hobby stuff and army prep after bed time.

Once they are a bit older get them gaming. The models may start off looking like gak, but they will be so proud of making and painting a rhino...

Have a eight yr old, Six yr old and a five month old.

The modelling/painting area is the corner of the living room, its gated off via an old play pen cage and the sofa, so none of the kids are allowed in there, neither is the dog.

So painting wise, I can leave figures out mid paint job without any issues.


Gaming wise, all three are in bed between seven and eight, the two youngest at seven, the eldest at eight. The baby sleeps to a 1am feed, then afterwards to 6am.

So we have a roughly five hour window after 8pm to game be that wargamming, RPG or MMO related.

On top of that both the elder boys have their own armies in 40K now, and both have played Pokemon TCG with me, Star Wars Mini's and Heroclix.

So we're getting a fair bit of gaming in.

When my two were very young, most ( if not all) hobby related activity had to be shoved on the back burner, I was lucky if I had a few hours to paint let alone squeeze in a game.
As they grew older both took an interest in painting, so I'd give them a few unused minis, a few pots of paint and some older brushes and let them go to town while I did some serious painting ( of course this still required supervison, as I wanted to prevent them from painting anything otjer then the provided minis).
Now, my son has his own army and is my most frequently played opponent, while my daughter has decided that little toy soldiers are "wierd" and moved on to more" mature" pursuits ( such as watcjing anime non-stop.)