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I've told my daughter (now 4 years old) that they are daddy's models and she can look but can't touch because they are delicate. She's actually become quite protective of them when we have visitors (like my mother-in-law who accidentally broke one).

 ScootyPuffJunior wrote:

What does how old you are have anything to do with it?
And no, having a family doesn't negatively affect my "gaming life." I'd rather go to the pool with my younger daughter or take my older daughter fishing than play a game of 40K ten times out of ten. If anything, my hobby gets in the way of my family, not the other way around.

Ah well, I suppose everyone is different, maybe its us gruff British northmen who don't like to act all washy and sentimental, but when I meet all my mates for a pint (and it happens far less these days now everyone had kids!) all everyone seems to do is complain about how they don't get to spend enough time on the ale anymore!

I suppose the collection of degenerate drunks that I hang around with has the more negative "kids are alright, but they stop you getting drunk as often" attitude rather than the "having kids is so great, I don't even want to go on the lash anymore!"

For what its worth, I fething envy you!

I was going to jump on this yesterday, but I ended up too busy, which actully worked out even better! I brought the subject up to the wife of 18 years and we had a very long discussion about it.

I don't remember childproofing the house (because we didn't) for any of our children. We practiced the concept of parenting, We paid attention to our children (and still do)and encouraged them when they were good and discouraged them when they were not. They knew at a very young age that there were things they were not allowed to do or say, touch or play with and now (at 10 & 14) we constantly hear how well behaved and polite they are.

My daughter started painting Necrons at 3. I set her up with a bunch of primered warriors and an old brush and showed her how to dry brush. She's stuck with it and now has an entire army that rivals anything at any of the FLGS's that we've been to. My son, still not as interested in the painting as he is in reading about it and playing. We've left it up to them as to how much they want to get into.

My advice, play it by ear. Put the rest of your life on hold and be a parent to your offspring. Oh, and welcome responsability!!

Lots of good advice here. I'll add my own limited experience. I have a 2.5 year old and a 2 week old.

Storage:
To begin with, I recommend moving anything that is not, locked or elevated into storage if possible. I keep most of minis in miniature cases now.

Hobby Room:
Obviously not possible, but if there's any way you can move you and your wife's stuff into a separate hobby room that's the best way to segregated it from your kids.

Painting at a moments notice:
I keep a cafeteria tray on a shelf in my dining room kitchen. On the tray is:
-My currently in-progress unit
-paints
-water
-Brushes, etc
I also have a box of paints in the closet.
This allows me to paint quickly when I have a bit of spare time without wasting time seting up or having to keep a desk available for painting.

Basic Training:
My son already knows that models and miniatures are "daddy's toys" . An instant time-out is applied if he tries to grab one, and a hand slap if he goes for a blade. It took no time at all before he learned what not to touch. Of course consistency is the key. If you're not willing to walk them to the corner when they misbehave, they will quickly learn that they can sometimes grab things.

Perspective:
Your kids will break/deface/damage stuff, and not all of it will be something as replacable as a gaming model. Just be aware of this and try not to sweat it when it happens.

Keeping your better half happy.
As long as she's not an insecure control freak, your wife shouldn't have any problem with you continuing your hobby, albeit in a somewhat reduced capacity. Planning a regular gaming night ahead of time that she knows is coming is a great way to keep consistency. For the last 3 years I've been gaming every other week with the same group. I know my wife appreciates that she knows when I will and won't be out gaming.

Yeah I have a couple myself, 4 and 1.5.

The obvious stuff like keeping dangerous bits n peices will already be second nature after the first one. I have a little hobby tool box that lives on the top shelf with everything sharp, toxic or adhesive in it. Anything I'm working on is contained in 4ltr Really Useful box trays (with lids on). It keeps projects contained and easily put-away-able for when the Mrs starts shouting out for assistance but there's still another little one ready to pounce!

My 4yo has taken an interest in daddies toy soldiers and I've let her paint a couple of old plastic space marines red.

Anything else is just Mrs related, by that I mean when/if you can get out to play without getting it in the neck!

Concerning glass cases, my friend taought me to use car cables (not the boosting ones, the elastic ones with hooks on the ends) to secure the door. If you do it from the top, they'll never reach it, but you can do it from the bottom too. It'll generally be tight enough not to be easily removable by a young child.

You'll be putting locks on all your cabnets anyway so why not store gamming stuff in them as well.

I'm lucky I could just put a childproof doorknob on the basement door and lock my hobby space off from little fingers. The fist floor guest room also received a lock and was transformed into the "Room of Forbidden Toys" where toys that needed a time out went, and non child safe things got stuffed.

Even when The Boy was new, I still made time to go out and do me things (aka warhammer and other gaming). Remember, even when you put on the Daddy hat, you are still the same person, and need to keep yourself sane. Parenting is rough enough without your hobbies for stress relief.

One bit of general parenting advice:
Anything you plan on doing in the next two years, do before your child is born. This includes baby-proofing the whole house. Your time and energy is about to go "poof" preparation is a good thing.

I have a six year old and a two year old.

So far not lost a single figure to them... And I have a few thousand!

I have always let them in my hobby room (both had a moses basket in the room so I could paint while they slept next to me) and never had any rules as to their behaviour other than to calmly tell them not to touch or to put things down that they werent suppossed to have. Dangerous items of course are out of reach.

As they have constant access its pretty much of no interest to them. Which is handy...

May not work with all kids but with mine, the lack of mystery makes it all just 'Daddys Toys' and of no interest to either of them... My daughter occasionally paints with me but thats about as far as the interest goes. Though my son does pull my copy of Dark Millenium off the shelf everytime he comes in to look at the box cover...

Two kids here - now 13 and 11. Never had a single incident involving miniatures with them.
They both showed an interest in painting as well and "painted" their first miniatures at ages 6 and 4.

I now game with my 13-year old. I never stopped gaming/modelling/painting when I became a parent - even the occasional late-night hour spent advancing an army instead of watching some stupid tv-show will accumulate over the years. Now when the kids are older, I can actually do things with them and it feels great! I mean just couple of weeks ago we glued together 30 Plaguebearers and I was responsible only on using the sharp-edged thingies cutting stuff out of sprues.

In fact I've had more trouble with my cats ... they do not take kindly to closed doors or cabinets they are supposed not to go. I've had some cat-annihilated vehicles to prove those are the true monstrous creatures.

So basically what we are all saying is that kids are pretty much fine around wargaming; it's wives, girlfriends and pets you have to keep an eye on!

 notprop wrote:
So basically what we are all saying is that kids are pretty much fine around wargaming; it's wives, girlfriends and pets you have to keep an eye on!

That's the truth. The Wife is supportive of my hobby, and doesn't actively stop me. She will however fill up every spare moment of free time with events, many of which I can't dodge.

You will be so busy you wont even miss all your hobby time.

That's a good point - Too tied to think of wargaming?...................

I keep it in my gaming area downstairs.

My daughter and I started playing simplified games at about 5. She started terrain projects with me at about 6.

As a dad, you won't have much time to worry about wargaming.

An excellent point there Easy E. I'd completely forgotten about free child labour.

 notprop wrote:
An excellent point there Easy E. I'd completely forgotten about free child labour.

The quality tends to be crap though

May I suggest a bigger stick perhaps?

 notprop wrote:
May I suggest a bigger stick perhaps?

Just remember the "rule of thumb"

My fiend who I started playing warhammer with had 7 siblings evenly distributed between 1-12 years old. My friend would spend a good portion of his time looking for mini's and repairing the ones he did find before we ever played. Most young kids are curious and unless you keep the miniatures locked up, expect them to be damaged.

My boy will be four at the end of the month. About a year ago, I gave him a dozen grots I converted (poorly) from some gnoblars as his first "army." We hold regular battles between his goblins and a squad of Marine bikes he appropriated recently. Nothing has ever broken, and he's been great about not going for any other minis. He's not ready for games with rules yet, but that will come soon enough...

It's important not to forget the upside though. Gaming is a fun way of the kids learning to have a plan and execute it, to deal with chance and react, how/when to control themselves and how to win/lose gracefully .

Then they also get to exercise their creative skills (modelling, painting, converting).

I have three boys and I reckon getting them into gaming was great for them.

Re your models, I think they are less likely to get broken once the kids have at least some of their own (because they appreciate how much work it takes!). Not saying you should buy them a 2000pt army, but something that they can build/convert/paint will help.

i'm 30 now, sadly i don't have any kids, but I look forward to one day teaching my kid how to play mini wargames. At my old FLGS, one of the kids who was interested in it bring his parents in, they wanted us to sell the hobby to them. as you could imagine, we made it out to be the best thing for a child's growth after sesame street. You shouldn't stop all together, but put the game on hold until they can understand what the game is. as far as your models go, there are display cabinets you can get so you don't have to hide them.

I think that it's great to game as a parent with your kids. Keeping involved with your child's activities is a great way to bond with the kid as well as to make sure that you know you're having an active hand in developing your child. With that being said, a parent should probably look for a game that is easy to pick up for a child.

1) Avoid games with charts and graphs, a child could understand the game, but it'd be better to stick to something that does basic addition and subtraction.
2) Make sure that the models you use are ones the child wants to play with. We all love our MAN DOLLIES and know which piece is better in an army than our kids do. That's okay, they want to play with what looks cool
3) Instill in them the fact that these are games and games are meant to be fun win or lose. If your kid only has fun when he wins, he's going to become a sore loser and won't stick with the game after a few losses.
4) Teach him all aspects of tabletop war gaming. Painting as a child goes a long way with development and using parts of the brain that don't get developed too often. Teaching basic color theory and painting techniques can really help a child learn to focus his attention on a single project. I would say do this anyways, even if you don't like painting. It'll be up to your child if he wants to continue to paint down the road.
5) Have fun with your kid, play scenarios, reenact battles from the game where you are outmanned and will most likely lose.

My daughter is a fan of Gorkamorka mostly.

Followed by shooting green army men with Nerf guns, H.G. Wells style

I have a pair of 10-year old boys who have grown up with my miniatures scattered all over the place. I pulled all my figures out of my cases and locked my kids inside.

All joking aside, for the first 2 years, I had everyting stored away in boxes until they were old enough to understand what they could and couldn't do. After that, I left the figures out and they were safe from the kids, though the cat still molests them.

I also helps if you have a dedicated hobby room, where you can close the door ... might have to share that with your wife so that her hobbies are safe as well.

shelfunit wrote:

This (almost) to the letter. I've only got the one (so far) who is almost three now, but he likes the horsies with wings and hasn't quite figured out how to say genestealer properly yet. Supervision is the key. Don't leave your modelling knife out and you should be ok. He is suprisingly delicate with my models and anything you really don't want to get accidentally snapped you just put out of reach, but as long as it's not completely forbidden, and you spend a bit of time with some older models they are much less likely to try and find/grab/squish/throw in general*.

*I can only speak from my experience though.

i can attest to this as well.
I am fortunate to have a fantastic, artistically inclined 3 yo.
He is also delicate with models, but I should preface, upon instruction. I do have a pretty sizable collection and my only advise would be to have a small set aside of models just for the child to touch/play with. "Sacrificial lambs" if you will.

He enjoys painting them and playing with them as well. That being said, i can't stress the following enough:
They're Toy Soldiers

The occasional mishap is bound to occur which is why metal models make the best sacrificial lambs. Don't freak out, and everything can be fixed, touched up, glued back together.

As far as gaming goes, scheduled games on Friday evenings or at home work best.

Oddly I game more now I have kids...

Atleast once a week at our club or at home. Sometimes twice a week.

Im lucky in that once the kids are in bed, Im allowed free rein to paint or play or whatever. Most evenings I sit and paint... My wife usually sits in her room either doing work or her hobby. Our rooms are opposite so we can chat and do our own thing. We catch up over dinner or catch the occasional movie some nights.

I should probably note that I get away with this as Im sad and have no other interests outside my family and my hobby. I dont do sport, going to the pub or even watching telly really - did all that when I was younger. When I get home from work, I play with the kids till they go to bed, dinner with the missus and then hobby time. Its helps to have an angel for a missus though... Hell Im even allowed a weekend abroad every three months to attend wargame shows.

As for involving my kids... I dunno. My daughter paints and my small boy is already lining up soldiers and shooting them with cannons at two. Im just gonna let them show an interest in it if they want to... But they will be buying their own armies and painting them! I had to when I was a kid (my Step-Father had an Orc army to feed) and its a good way to learn that you cant have everything at once in life...

Besides that, I will have my own armies to buy and paint!

 Ifurita wrote:
I have a pair of 10-year old boys who have grown up with my miniatures scattered all over the place. I pulled all my figures out of my cases and locked my kids inside.

All joking aside, for the first 2 years, I had everyting stored away in boxes until they were old enough to understand what they could and couldn't do. After that, I left the figures out and they were safe from the kids, though the cat still molests them.

I also helps if you have a dedicated hobby room, where you can close the door ... might have to share that with your wife so that her hobbies are safe as well.

I have 10-year old twin girls. Tell your boys to keep away from my house...

They've shown some interest over the years - I started them early with just rolling dice and trying to see who gets the highest number. The farthest we've gotten is a very simple skirmish-type of game I made up. One seems more interested in the other, but both are just glad to spend time with me

They do love to paint and I've given them some lessons, painting some spare Bret horses and Skull Pass goblins. It's a skill that they can take into their school projects as I've seen clay projects come home that have been given a nice wash or drybrush. They're more into the artistic side

Yes, sir. First off, put the models away. Box them and store them. If you choose to leave a few out for your own purposes that's fine. It is easier to secure just a few than to secure a massive collection. (This process is part of your baby-proofing).

I am lucky in that I have a gaming room that always stays shut. Kids only go in with my supervision. I have shelves with models on them. The kid-friendly models (like D&D minis) are on the bottom shelves and are meant to attract attention first. The breakable stuff is stored higher.

Not all kids will "just listen" when you tell them that these are off-limits. So better to just keep them away from little hands. WARLORD GHAZGHKULL - NOT TO EAT.

Others have said that you will have no gaming time after baby comes. Probably true. It's okay. Stay strong. Until baby is mobile you will be able to enjoy painting and modeling instead. Also, you will have this chance to store models if you haven't already done so.

You will gradually get gaming time back. First priority is mom & baby, though. Pour your energy into them until you have balance for your new way of life. The great thing about the hobby is that you can enjoy novels, the boards, all sorts of stuff during this time.

I started playing 40K with my child at 3 years old. Massively simplified version, of course, but everybody loves throwing dice. Make this time with your kids and you will one day have more chances to play than you ever thought possible.

But in short, take this time to decide what you're going to model after baby is born - put 99% of the stuff away for the next few years. Focus on that favorite project. Dabble. And most of all, love that baby and mom.

PS - buy fuzzy dice for baby