Afternoon all I am thinking of buying myself a new gaming monitor but have a little one on the way due in September (our first ) and am wondering whether spending the money will actually be worth it (i.e. will I have any free time to actually play games ). What do you find? Cheers GK
I have no time to game anymore (I have 3 5 and unders), however, when I only had one I found the only time I had to game was after the missus had gone to sleep or very early on a morning. So I'd say overall, yes you'll have time to game
like any other hobby, you'll find some time, but don't forget to balance your other obligations and spend time with your significant other sometimes when the anklebiter has gone to sleep.
Firstly, congrats . I've got 2 sprogs (Matylda is 3 and Edgar is 6 months old) and depending on what the Mrs is doing I can usually get a couple of 2/3 hour gaming sessions in a week. Mostly evenings after the kids are asleep and the Mrs is watching crap tele, but on the weekend I sometimes take the early feed with Edgar and can squeeze a few hours in after he goes to sleep but before the rest of the house wakes up (so like 430am to 630am or whatever). The main change I found was that I stopped playing anything that I can't either pause or drop at a moments notice. Kids have an anoying habit of waking up/walking in/needing attention at awkward moments so my competitive online gaming career pretty much stopped with the arival of the kids . It won't take long to figure out some kind of routine, if you're anything like me the first few months you'll probably be more focused on how to change nappies and OH MY GOD WHY WONT IT STOP CRYING than gaming, but once you've got that stuff sorted you will find there is a lot of joy to be had in gaming at 3am whilst feeding your baby on your lap .
Thanks I'll obviously make sure that I don't neglect either Mrs K or Little K but the above makes me think that I'll still be able to squeeze some gaming in somewhere. Kind of makes me think that if I'm going to be gaming less (I don't game LOADS at the minute but an hour or two a few times a week) that I would want the experience to be as good as possible when I did fit in the time to game...
2 year old daughter here and I'm down to two 2 hour sessions a week. Occasionally top up if the wife takes her out (birthday parties for example)
I'm not a gaming parent, but I'm a gaming uncle that had my niece grow-up in the house with me until she was about 5 years old so got the joy of taking part in the parenting experience as my sister wasn't completely with it. It's hard to say if you'll have time to make full use of the new shiny monitor, that'll completely depend on the rest of your life and how you go about making yourself free. Personally, I'd say you should be able to still have a good amount of social and gaming activities going on scattered around looking after the little one(s). It'll take a little bit of getting them into a routine, but once they have rough schedules for things to happen the rest of your life tends to fit in quite nicely. Small children in our house would often have a nap around 13:00 for a couple of hours and then would be put to bed by 19:30 so I managed to arrange to catch up with friends early afternoon for an hour each day and then jump into the games for a few hours before bed (usually three nights of the week). That was basically my routine for the first year and a bit, then the children started to entertain themselves a bit so we could simply leave them sat at a table next to us or on the floor while we played games.
I have a 3 year old and a 7 month old. It is rare that I can openly game while the rest of the family are around and awake, but your other half may be more understanding about your needs than mine. While I can't say the kids have been the only factor, my PC gaming has gone down to zero since they turned up. My PC is away from the rest of the house, and I just find that it is not instant enough to fit in with things (i.e. boot to Windows -> launch steam -> update steam -> launch/update game). This is where my latest acquisition comes in. I (secretly) bought a Nintendo N3DS recently. I don't know how it compares with other handhelds as I've never owned one before, but it is excellent for dip-in/dip-out secret gaming. The clamshell design incorporates a 'sleep' mode, so if I hear the missus coming I just have to shut the clamshell. It goes immediately to sleep, and when I open it again it wakes up instantly, right where I left off in the game - no saving required (provided you've got sufficient battery life - full battery seems to buy at least a couple of days worth of sleep mode though). And of course it's so small that I can whip it into a pocket, bag, down the sofa etc. at a moments notice. I've had it about 2 months and am still undetected
Lock the ankle biters in the shed and game freely! I went through a few years where I didn't get a look in until after the kids were in bed, but I'd manage the occasional hour or two when they were asleep. You have a Dell 27 right? I'd stick with that tbh, mate. Some might argue kids are a huge expense so upgrade while you can, but I think that's a bit pointless - why pay a premium for a 4K monitor and GPU when you're only going get limited time on it? Stick with what you have - you may find your priorities and preferences will change and stop chasing the upgrade fairies.
This is pretty much it, right here. Having a child is certainly a major commitment, but one of the best pieces of advice I can give potential parents is this: don't forget to make time for yourself. Just because you're a parent, doesn't mean you should stop making time for the things you enjoy. besides, kids have to sleep at some point, right? The other nice thing is that if your child grows up with any interest in video games (and let's be honest, what kid doesn't?), you have a built-in gaming partner. I recently set up a Minecraft server for my 7-year-old daughter, and we have some good times in our little creative world.
I've got three monsters: 2, 4 and 6. I don't find a lot of time to game but i'm the main care provider. All I need to do is make sure all of the housework is done before they go to bed around 6 and I get most of the evening. I try and find games that my children might like to play or watch me play. They quite like Ni No Kuni for the PS3 - it looks like a studio ghibli film because they actually designed all of the characters. A bit of mario kart or Super Smash Bros. goes down a treat too. PC gaming is a bit more difficult as it's a little anti-social. I just have to try and play.... age appropriate games. Gaming is a hobby and hobbies are harder to find time for as an adult. But if you love your hobby, you'll find time.
You will definately find the time to game, however for the first few months you will more than likely be too tired to even think about gaming
you will find time, but it won't be much time and you will be tired. If you don't "need" a new monitor I'd put the money away and see if you still want to spend it on a monitor in 6 months time. I've got 2 kids (7 and 1) and get very little time to game so I pretty much only play games that I can play for 10-15mins at a time when I get a chance, this pretty much limits me to phone games, harthstone and old megadrive / snes games I play on original hardware with a CRT TV in my office when no ones looking. Also depending on where you game you may need to rethink what you play, nothing too violent before bedtime with the toddlers around
Speaking from experience, here's how I did it, not so much game time but you can sneak a few hours in. At the week ends I would take over the feeding so my sons mum could catch up on sleep. She would have an early night and I would do the 10 o'clock feed and the next one at about 2 am same again on a Saturday and I would have a little lay in and she would do the early feed. Then split the rest during the day depending who's doing what. Thats a clear 8 hours at least. My excuse for not going to bed was because I know I have to do it I can't settle so I'll just stay up. She didn't mind , because she was knackered. It wasn't gaming time for me as it was quite a while back, so all the football boxing and motorcycling I had recorded would be lined up, the kettle was on and I would plant my arse on the sofa and watch it all.. Job done.. See it's easy when you know how.. That said once things change and the kids get older it all changes. So grb it while you can. I should also add that as they get older and by chance get in to modding thats a good thing to do together, but in your case that's going to be quite a way off. Kids will change your life and tun it on it's head, but you'll love every minute of it. Plus if you can survive on 3 hours sleep a night and being permanently skint you'll fly though it. Congrats and have fun
Depends on your lifestyle. I have 2 kids both over 5 this year. I struggle to find time to game much now. I used to play loads on either pc xbox or ps in various generations 360 ps3 etc. Since kids though I don't have time or desire. It may be due to a change in job, I get home at 6pm kids are in bed by 7.45 then we have dinner then it is coming up to 8.30 and I can't be bothered. In the 1st 6 months sleep takes a backseat, gaming is a likely to be unobtainable. Make the most of the kids though George they grow up quick, spend the time with your new family. You'll discover that your needs will come last, if you do your job right anyway. Most of all enjoy it! Parenting is the best job ever! Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk
Congrats. We also have one due in Sept, but this'll be version 2.0 so new adventures await. My experience of having one kid is pretty much what the others have been saying - you will have some time, but it does depend on your missus and also how much of a sacrifice you will make to help out with other things around the house. In addition to that, you're gonna be SO TIRED that you probably won't even want to play games... you'll just want to sleep when you can.
Thanks guys I think I'll take a combination of your advice (mainly Sp!'s though) and wait to see for a while and keep the money aside. Not least because the monitor that I'm looking at doesn't appear to have the greatest QC and considering that my current screen is perfect with only a little IPS glow then I don't really want to risk shelling out on one that could have dead pixels etc. Very excited about little one though but I really like my sleep at the minute so I'm thinking that will be the biggest hurdle to overcome
