Having a baby seems to disrupt things in your life, but that’s to be expected. But I didn’t expect some of the things that fell to the wayside. Now that my daughter is three years old, I’m finally getting back into a groove with some of the geeky pursuits I had put on the back burner.
I love video games. I have since my family got an NES in the mid-80’s for Christmas. Thankfully I married a man who loves video games as much as I do so we have nearly all the latest and greatest consoles. We are very well known at our local GameStop because we are always trading in games to get new ones.
But when my daughter was born, things changed. I had to decided to try and breastfeed her. It worked out well, but she nursed a lot which tied up one of my hands since it was being used to hold her. I learned how to surf the internet and play World of Warcraft one-handed, but it was impossible to play console games.
As my daughter got older, I considered playing console games again. But I thought a lot of them might be too scary for her to see. She also would grab at the controller and try to push the buttons. So I got out of the habit. I still used my Nintendo DS a lot and played quite a bit of World of Warcraft. But I was missing out on a lot of great games being released on the consoles.
Finally, I’m getting back into the groove. My daughter is old enough now that she can play with her toys while I’m playing a video game. The game that really got me back into wanting to play console games is Dragon Age: Origins. My best friend has been telling me how good this game is and finally I see how right she was. I don’t get a lot of time to play it, but it’s nice to be able to use my xBox 360 again and play a great game. I have Dragon Age 2 waiting for when I’m finished with the first game.
It’s just nice to be able to start to do some of the things I enjoyed before I was a parent. Is there anything you were interested in that it took you a while to get back into after you had kids?
You go girl! I took a MUCH longer hiatus from RPG-type video games. More like 15 years! I played right up through college — stuff like Kings Quest from the early 90s.
Then…nothing.
Believe it or not, Glitch is the first RPG video game I’ve played in a very long time. Unless you count Sim City. But it was only Sim City, never The Sims, for some reason.
Part of my holdout is that I can predict how time consuming it is…now that my kids can watch/advise and are interested in my playing, I don’t feel so badly about it.
Thanks 🙂 The fact that video games are time consuming was another reason I hadn’t played in a while. Since I tend to play RPG’s which you really can’t just play for a little bit here or there.
I guess it shows the extent of my addiction that I never stopped, lolz. I just learned how to play for shorter periods of time. I also am quite adept at pausing in the middle of combat to read a book or play lego’s.
I collect action figures, but after the first child, we moved, and I never unpacked the collection for fear it would get destroyed. Now, all three children are old enough to play with mommy’s toys responsibly and I dug them out of storage to show off. They’ve even got their own box of figures I let them use. The girls like them better than Barbie!
Ooh, I hope you enjoy the Dragon Age games! I know there is a big divide in the fandom between Origins and 2, but I really can’t decide which one I like better! I have played them both multiple times and keep wanting to play. DA is kind of my addiction…. Funnily enough, I didn’t really get into the RPG games until after my kiddo was born–now naptime and bedtime for her are game time for Mommy. :o)
I could say exactly the same things, but substitute fandom for video games. Fandom has been a huge part of my life in the last decade (reading and writing fanfic, going to cons, podcasting, etc.), but all of that came to a screeching halt when my son was born. Around the time he turned 2.5, I found I was able to find time to get back into it again. It’s nice to have that time to myself again, I have to admit! My next goal is to go to a con without my son. (He’s been with me to 3 cons so far…)
Thankfully we have relatives who live outside of Atlanta so my husband and I have been able to attend Dragon*Con alone every year since she was born. It’s hard to enjoy a con with a baby or toddler in tow.
This year we are considering bringing her for a day – there are some things I think she would love and I am planning some costumes for her already *L*
I know how you feel 🙂 I actually slowed my WoW playing when my little boy was born about a year ago now; you can’t play in a group often as you’ll need to be able to up & leave in a few seconds.
I’m now playing WoW much more casually again, just leveling alts & chatting with friends etc.
That’s actually why I started playing good old single-player RPGs again, also starting with Dragon Age (2 actually, played Origins later). I can tell you; you’re in for a treat! And the greatest thing about it (to me) is that I can pause it at any point.
Nevermind what they say about DA2 btw; it’s a great game and I just adore the story and characters; these are amazing games 🙂
Now I’m on to Skyrim, haven’t played as many different games since I got much more heavily invested in WoW about 3 years ago (have been playing for 7 years now…)
Have fun!
Dragon Age 2 is not that good. Try it, then go pick up Skyrim.