Just had a newborn. My gaming is over?

So I became a dad roughly 6 week ago and my initial thought was "YES. Free from work and the kid will sleep all day and I can finally come back to wow and play all day since i heard babys sleep so much…

But o.m.g i was wong havt had time to even start my computer yet…

So how can I game while still having to take care of my baby? My friend with two kids, former hardcore WoW’er, said it was impossible, but I really wanted to prove that even though you get a new family member you don’t have to give up on your hobbies or desires in life.

I found that the answer was divided.

Yes, my baby needs me a couple of hours each day and also requires me on standby, so I could just forget about raiding with my guild and my character now has a well-deserved break from gear hunting. All other MMO’s or any other games that require you available and 100% focused for a hours is a no-go.

How do you combine gaming with kids? I’d love to know.

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How may places did you post this? Anyway I answered your other thread.

Wow, this guy really thinks babies give you more free time than work? haha boy have you made a mistake.

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Joke - you teach her/him wow.

Baby > WoW end of story.

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A lot of my guildies make it work and some of them play actively as well. I don’t know how they do it, and I have no children so I don’t have any personal experience to help you with either. But as general advice, you need to be good at managing your time. Yeah, you won’t be able to play as much as you used to, but it doesn’t mean that you have to quit either. Plan what you’re going to do and be smart about it.

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While I don’t personally have any tips on gaming with a newborn, I do want to just stop in and say congrats!

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The only idea I have for a young kid is to get one of them kangaroo pouches and let them sleep on you, while you play, then avoid the sound being too loud and VC to let me sleep :slight_smile:

Then when they are older they can be your little farmers in Wow ^-^

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Congrats on becoming a dad, Awwero!

I’m a relatively recent father to a now 1 ¾ year old and a kid will absolutely have a big impact on your free time. That’s something you’ll need to accept, because that’s how your situation is now. As far as my experiences were, you really shouldn’t try and plan for anything, just take your free time as you get it (and please be helpful and understanding to your partner who is as much if not more impacted by this). Gaming time should be a very low priority compared to everything else so act accordingly. There is likely to always be something else you can do before you have time to play games, so plan your priorities and communicate with your partner about anything else you can do before sitting down for some gaming time.

I thought my tablet was a life-saver during the first 4-5 months or so, as I could sit there and watch my kid sleep or feed her and watch something I could easily turn off and get back to later if needed, all while being relatively mobile this way. I caught up on a lot of tv-shows, movies and let’s play youtube series for old and new games I never got around to playing for various reasons. Especially watching let’s play X series was a great substitute to being able to play games for me.

It does get a little better as they get older and their sleeping pattern stabilizes so there’s something to look forward. Once they start sleeping through the night, you’ll usually have some free time from 7 PM or so onwards and you might have a break during the midday/afternoon during their nap(s) as well. Invest in some good headphones because you really don’t want to be making random noise and wake them up early :).

Overall, making clear and sensible arrangements with your partner is the best way to let each of you have time for your hobbies. Make gratuitous use of proud grandparents, other family, and friends to get an hour or two during the day, or an evening off together to help you both catch a break.

That all said, if you’re going to make any time available, try and spend it with your new baby. Time spent with them, creating memories and building a loving relationship is something far more important than anything else, and it’s worth investing in a lot more than the latest raid tier or pvp season.

Good luck, and enjoy it!

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My wife is a great mom and my newborn is a great kid. He sleeps very good night times and stay up pretty much all day even tho he is 2 months today.

Im working from 14.00-22.00 so before work i just help my wife with pretty much everything then go to work. When im home at 23.00 i just kiss them both when they sleeping and watch some youtube. Right now im not even thinking about playing even tho i can play 2-3h at night.

Been playing this game since i was little and i miss it but wont be the same anymore.

Classic wow im just gonna pretend it doesnt exist.
Gonna see in the future how it plans out!

I havd 2 kids, one aged 5 and one is almost a year old.

I still have a decent amount of gaming time. I can probably play for a few hours a day, and more on weekends. It comes down to planning and prioritizing your free time. Some people are exhausted after the day and spend an hour in the couch in front of the telly - I just game instead. Some go for a walk (I should probably do that) but I game instead.

My usual day looks like:
05:30 - get up, go to work

14:00-15:00 - pick up kids (wife delivers at daycare before she starts work at around 9), go home and take care of them

16:00-16:30 - wife comes home from work

16:30 - 17:30 - usually I take an hour here to game

17:30 - 19:00 - I shop, prepare dinner, eat dinner, cleanup dinner and so on - this is my responsibility each day since wife does the laundry.

19:00 - 20:00 - kids are prepped for bed, and after the prep wife will put the small one down. My 5 year old stays up for a little longer but usually just plays in her room at this point.

20:00 - 22:00 - papa gaming time

22:00 - go to bed

Now remember - when you have kids, life is messy. Some days I don’t game at all because we decide on a family outing, some days a kid gets sick and needs you 24/7. Some days, wife gets sick and you have 24/7 responsibility of everything. However, I always aim to get at least an hour or two of gaming time each day, because it helps me relax and recharge.

Also - remember, that when you spend time with the kids, just be present. Don’t watch forums on the phone - spend time with them, because then you won’t feel guilty when you go dedicate some gaming time.

Now my 5 year old is showing an interest in gaming, so sometimes we play together. We have been playing on the Switch system (games like Pokemon, Overcooked and other co-op games) and when she gets older who knows - maybe she will join me in WoW or whatever, so you can both game AND spend time with your kids.

No matter what - don’t feel guilty for wanting time to game. Prioritize your day, make sure you do your responsibilities, spend quality time with kids, and then take care of yourself too. As a new parent, your life will be a freaking train wreck, but eventually you will figure out what works for you and your family.

Best of luck - having kids is the best thing ever, but also the hardest thing ever. But “just” having a child doesn’t mean you should give up every hobby you have - you might just have to dial it down for a few years.

Hope this helps, and best of luck to you and your family.

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You’re looking at this all wrong.

No, your game time isn’t over, but it will be heavily impeded.

My son is 15 months now. I get around 2-3 hours a day. When he naps and housework is done and I play for an hour or two at night when he’s down.

Sure, it’ll take some adjustment, but your child ‘must’ take priority. There is no compromise there.

Good luck!

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… didn’t work for me, as on top on the baby, of the housework, of the daily job, also the wife ask for attention…

You need to be more present then before, so my guess is he’ll miss two expansions at least !

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It will be hard at first. Not only playing, but everything.
You have no time to eat or sleep or go to toilet. You’ll be rocking all the time and kids songs will be playing on the back of your head most of the time.

But worry not, it gets better pretty fast. Some five years and you’ll be raiding again :rofl:

But jokes aside, raising kids is a hard full time job and dropping activities that you like completely won’t make it easier. Keep a good balance between responsibilities & rest and you’ll do just fine.

And congratulations!

you can raise ur new baby to play classic and every year u can say: hey try this: and then u surprise with retail and only let ur baby level to 70 and do all raids etc i saw a guild is doing it on youtube

I wouldn’t say it’s over. Not all babies are the same. My first son slept for 18-20 hours a day, so I had alot of time to play wow.
However my second son only slept for 10-12 hours a day since he was born, and that severely limited my play time :smiley:

Now they are 3 and 6 years old and they love gaming as much as I do. But I try to limit their screen time, so I mostly play wow after they go to bed. But some evenings I play Overwatch with the 6 year old.

Instead of giving you advices and tying to be that one guy that tells what yo do, Ill just share my story.

I’m also a father. I have to children. 3 year old daughter or 1 year old son. Working from monday to friday from 8 AM to 4PM with almost and hour long journey to office. Outside of office time I do photoshoots and need spare time to edit those photos. My wife did something she learned from university (she has masters degree in education) - kids like rituals. They quickly stick to some sort of routine. We just tought our kids to go to spleep at 7PM and then I have 3 hours for myself. I can spend one hour watching Netflix with wife and I still have time for playing WoW. Still have a lot of time after work till kids go to sleep to spend time with them, when they were smaller gnomes that cried a lot I just used my legs to bounce them in stroller or used wrap to make them feel comfortable. There are more methods you can imagine to take care of kids the way they don’t interrupt your daily activies - even gaming. My daughter sometimes even want to sit net to me and watch what I play, younger one likes it too, but after 5 minutes he want’s to try it for himself so basically I’m not playing when kids are all awake and I just spend time with them other way. Also my wife knows me and from time to time gives me some space to play WoW. Raids are done once a week so I usually clear them on weekends. Dailies are usually quick and easy so I do couple of them each day (not all, sometimes I get bored of repeating same old stuff). just find yourself a guild that will tolerate erratic presence in the game or actually guild of parents / other busy adults calling themselves casual guild. Being a parent of two kids taught me a lot about time management and I never imagined that I will have so much time for all my activies, family and even gaming.

Find a social guild i played just fine with my newborn hes now 3 and it is easier now but its a balancing act

Have you looked into adoption? :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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