Married with young kids and playing GT5? Please share your thoughts here.

  • Thread starter Thread starter chippy
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For me, Gran Turismio is the real family simulator.
 
33 yrs old and 3 kids. Eldest being 10 and youngest being 18 months. Kids are asleep by 8pm (supposed to be asleep) thus i get about 2hrs or maybe if ime lucky until i get the call from the wife about 3.
 
Im 31 with a newborn. I get to play after the wife goes to bed. Usually between 30 minutes and 2 hours depending on how tired i am and how often our baby cries.
 
Nice subject (:

I am a 40 year old married father whit 2 beautiful daughters almost 7 and 10 years old.
After the girls go to bed around 20:00 my wife let me play for a while.
We have nice conversations during the races.
A few days a week the TV is hers and I just dont play at all,however do the grind for b-spec while watching TV (Bob in the FGT doesn't need support at all to win the b-spec races).

My oldest daughter do the grind for me this week, while I am at work, to get to lvl 35 bspec for the X2010
She only have to push ones a day 5 buttons to restart an endurance race for the XP to get there.
Current I am on a-spec lvl 29 and b-spec lvl 32

Overall I am able do my hobby in a nice way,but my girls are lovely, so no complain by me :)
 
JaiAE86
I'm 13...

I don't have kids, don't have a job, don't care about homework, or school for that matter, :
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I think when your 20,30 or even 40 youll still be giving that much time to your gaming.
 
Good thread Chippy!

I am 32 as well but my daughter is 2 1/2, I do play a little longer than 30 minutes but we are very similar as well. I work until 7 and I do the same things as you except some nights after my wife lays down is when I play GT5 for atleast a couple of hours. I don't usually drag the driving rig out until everybody is sound asleep and I can put the headphones on and just drive. My little girl likes to sit on daddy's lap and steer the car around the track.

I am only 24 A-spec and 7 B-spec. Don't worry though you will level up over time. I am not trying to beat this game before the year is out, or even next year just take your time and enjoy the game like I am. 30 minutes is nothing it is so easy to burn 2 to 3 hours playing GT! :)

johnnyko12
I game similarly to blackheart. Once the family goes to bed it's my time and I'm allowed to do whatever i want :-)

My 13 month old and mom go to bed between 830 and 9 so I have till whenever to play, just depends how tired I want to be at work the next day.
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This is me too!

jjaisli
The picture above was actually taken about 18 months ago. While she does occasionally ask to sit and drive with me, usually early in the morning on weekends, lately she's become a bit devious; sneaking up behind me and then shouting my name. And then laughs and giggles and asks me why I'm driving on the grass. She's going to be a handful when she's a teen, I can see it now. :nervous:
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Very cute little girl. Mine is about her age (little younger).
 
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I am 32 and have 2 kids under 3. You just get to GT5 whenever you can. Usually when they are all in bed, you just sacrifice some sleep. Not every night, but most nights. When you're exhausted, B spec! it's perfect really...
 
I am a 29 year old father of 17 month old twin girls who are obsessed with my racing wheel and all the buttons on it. I very rarely complete a single 5 lap race without having to pause the game several times or having at least one girl on my lap frantically pressing the horn button on my wheel while I am trying to win a race. Life is good, wouldn't trade it for all the days I spent mind numbing amount of hours playing video games in my teens and early twenty's.
 
I'm 27 with a 2 1/2 yr old boy and a 1 1/2 yr old girl and I only get bout 3-4 hrs during the week unless the Missus decides to go bed early then I stay up but I tend to think il take forever to do this game especialt as I have no Internet at mo so no seasonal events etc.grind grind grind!I haven't even started b spec yet.really don't want to either,sounds so boring.
 
I'm 25 married for 5.5yrs and have two girls 4, and 2. I play as much as I can with out making anyone in the house too upset! (M-F 1hr about S-S wake up early and play about 2-3hrs):D I'm currently in the market for a wheel and I like the idea of playing with my kids in my lap and let them steer, has anyone had fun with this?
 
Swal
I am a 29 year old father of 17 month old twin girls who are obsessed with my racing wheel and all the buttons on it..
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same thing here the little girl loves the g25 but the boys are not interested in it.
 
I'm in the same boat. Nothing wrong with playing video games while being married with kids. I'm 28 and have a 5 year old boy. My wife was pregnant and due Dec 18th. So I played GT5 every single day since it came out to try to accomplish as much as possible before new baby. Well she was born a week earlier and ever since I've been doing just b-spec mode. I've gotten as far as level 27 b-spec and level 26 a-spec. I'm only doing b-spec for the prices.
 
I'm just shy of 40 with wife & daughters 8 & 10.
My PS3 hrs are usually 9pm - 1am or so, luckily I've never required much sleep. :)
 
Off topic.
Kids nowadays are so lucky with the next gen consoles and lcd tv's to play it on.
i was playing a NES on a Amstrad television back in the days.
 
Where are the women in this thread? Is there any girl in this world that at least feel an afecttion for gt5? I'm not married, but I hope I could find an interesting girl to share the hobby of hardcore gaming ;P
 
I'm 28 with a 3yr old boy. If I'm lucky ill get an hour a day unless my wife goes out for the evening(as she is tonight) then ill play all night if I can! I can't wait till my son is old enough to play games with me :D
 
Great thread, glad to see so many parents keeping their lives in check and squeaking in some game time where they can. I have 3 kids, one of the advantages of being divorced and having joint custody is some free time when they are with their mom. Keep on striking the balance all!
 
I'm 34 and my little girl turns one in 6 days. If I am home with her, I'll let my 4 Bobs do some laps, as I'm more focused playing with my daughter, they tend to lose more than they win, but it's all XP and Crs.

Once she is down for the night 7-8 most nights, I break out the wheel and get 2-3 hours in. My wife is doing a PhD, so she is usually busy in the evening.

GT5 + a glass of Scotch is a great way to end a day.
 
Nice thread. I'm 37 with a son, almost 5 and a daughter 2,5. I'm playing GT5 when everybody went to bed. So it leaves me 1 to 2 hours a day for GT5. Luckely I don't need much of sleep.
 
allent2
I'm 25 married for 5.5yrs and have two girls 4, and 2. I play as much as I can with out making anyone in the house too upset! (M-F 1hr about S-S wake up early and play about 2-3hrs):D I'm currently in the market for a wheel and I like the idea of playing with my kids in my lap and let them steer, has anyone had fun with this?
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If I had to put my snoopy one-year old on my lap whilst playing GT5, I'd probably spend most of my limited gaming time mowing the grass. :) No thanks to that!
 
I wait until the wife, 5 year old and 4 month old are sleeping then play, usually until about midnight then I get up about 5:30 am for work.

I'm trying GT academy but it's tough with so little time.
 
i'm 29 and have two girls 6 and 1. My situation is very similar to the OP. My advise is don't worry about a 1/2 hour here and there--just stay up later then everyone else and get some headphones. :) that's what i do anyway.
 
im 29 and i just have a 6 year old boy....i usually get 1-2 hours a nite if everyone else goes to bed early...
but the good thing i have going is i work 4, 10 hour days a week so that one extra day during the week i have is usually a game day for me while the wifey is at work and my boy is at school
weekends and the nite b4 i have my one day off i try to stay up till 2-3am....but if finding out as i get older that is becoming harder to do lol
 
ArthurGT710
I'm divorced and play GT5 all the time:tup:
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:lol:



[EDIT]: I am not married nor have kids, but I work full-time and share an apartment with my girlfriend, and I do miss some more free time to dedicate to games in general and now to GT5 in particular. I play 2 hours tops during weekdays and don't go near a PS3 most weekends.
 
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40 here, no kids of my own, but I have 2 teenage Goddaughters I help care for. They don't require a ton of attention, but there is the daily cleaning, cooking and dishwashing before game time.

The oldest is a video gamer too, I have a PS3 and GT5 because she mostly hogs my PC. :-)

I have actually not been playing as much lately, but up to lvl 25.

I am sooo glad they increased credits and made it easier to have the Nordshliefe tracks in Arcade. Hard to grind with a full time job and kid responsibilities.
 
This is a great thread!

I'm 32, married with 2 kids under 3. Very similar bedtime situation time wise although it's usually me putting the kids to bed. Thankfully we never started the whole "laying with the kids until they fall asleep" thing so I'm in and out of their room pretty quick :sly: However, we only have the one TV so it's a compromise every time. My wife is very understanding when it comes to unwinding. She likes to watch TV and I like to play GT5. The most common solution is for her to break out the laptop and watch Hulu or Netflix while I race, but of course there are times when we watch a show together so she feels connected to me. I'm at A-spec 14 and B-spec 23 right now and I have to admit A-spec is a pain to grind through with such limited time behind the wheel. If B-spec didn't exist this game would've been shelved weeks ago. I'm at a point now where the B-spec races are so long I just start them before we go to bed and quit the game before the kids wake up in the morning. Another thing we started doing, because a social life is much more important to my wife than me, is on Friday nights she will go out with friends after the kids go to sleep and I will stay up late and race for a few hours. It makes for a rough morning with the kids sometimes but it's the only way to advance in A-spec for me.
 
35 here with a 2, 7 and 9 year old. The 9 year old is my boy and just got CoD Black Ops for Christmas, so on top of all the family responsibilities I have to fight him for PS3 time.. :)

As far as my play time, it is usually early in the morning before anyone wakes up, or very late at night after all are in bed. Most of the time I manage a 2 to 3 hour session about 3 times a week.

I am only A-Spec lvl 23, and have not even tried B-Spec yet. The only reason my level has gotten to where it is recently is because i Golded all the seasonal events. Beyond those, I have really only done the licenses. Ive done 40 license tests which finished all up through IB. I spent some time and Golded all of them though. I am one of those nuts that feels like it isnt finished unless I get Gold!

Anyway having kids and family def slows down the gaming and the progress, but there is still plenty of free time here and there, just have to use what little you get wisely!
 
In my opinion, this is by far the best thread I've read through on this forum mainly because it discusses important real life situations rather. It's great to see that Dads are able to take care of their families and often able to manage some video gaming time.
 
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