Spooncraft

There’s a lot to be said about being a parent in today’s world, but being a parent and still being raised a gamer is a whole other beast.

My parents didn’t raise me to play video games, even now they still come down on me to a certain degree because the gaming industry is my chosen profession. That my wife too plays and still manages to be an amazing wife and mother as well is something I want to chalk up to extreme luck for me. But don’t misunderstand, there are tons of us out there.

What society has yet to truly grasp at the moment is that the gamer generation has grown up and we still like our games. I grew up with Thundercats, Voltron, when Top Gun was the most amazing thing on film ever and I drew F14’s constantly in my free time; most of all I played video games at home and the arcade. From the humble beginings of the NES at age 6 to playing Warcraft II on my buddy’s MAC when I was 10, gaming is just the hobby that I have kept and has grown with me as an entertainment form, throughout my life.

There millions of other people out there like me, we grew up healthy social children, we played video games and collected action figures and led that kind of very fulfilling childhood. Now we’re adults, parents, teachers, judges, lawyers, politicians, CEOs of major companies, IT personnel and so forth. So how does one balance gaming and parenting? Where do we draw the line and raise our kids with the same values and fun we had growing up?

I like to think that playing World of Warcraft doesn’t deter at all from me being a parent, unlike what the associated media would have me think. I work on this site and other various errands throughout my day, I pickup my little girl from school when I’m not with the baby, my wife and I spend time together with the kids; then they go to bed and I log into the game. Keeping a good schedule and having the discipline to stick to that schedule is the big key here to managing your time well.

Sure some days I’ll goof off and spend more time online than others, or some nights if we’re raiding I won’t end up hitting the sack until about 2am or so. But this game has never come before real life and that’s our guild motto actually. A lot of gamers feel this way. Gaming is a hobby and it is a lifestyle but it’s not your entire life.

Most of the players you run into on the game have jobs, families, friends, possibly kids, and they lead fulfilling lives that will just about always come before the game. People should know that if you’re a gamer and all of the sudden you become a parent, it doesn’t mean you have to let go completely of your hobby (unless you are naturally moving away from it for whatever reason) and that there is a balance.