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

  • Thread starter Thread starter chippy
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Great thread chippy
My wife was wondering how many husbands with kids still play games. Well now i have some proof to show her. I'm 32 with 4 y.o girl and 4 mo boy. I let Bob do the grinding for me so i can get to Lvl. 35 and get the X1. What more can i say Boys will be Boys FOREVER (of course with more responsobilities and our priceless little bundles of joy on our laps asking "Daddy can i drive?")
 
Dissident
The 9 year old is my boy and just got CoD Black Ops for Christmas.
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You do know that Black Ops is M/PEGI18/18 rated right?
 
On the wife's to do list today was cleaning the garage. Paid my youngest son keep Bob going while I was slogging away. Bad father I am :)

Edit: big mistake...my son has just informed me his hourly rate has gone up to £1.50
 
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Lol. You sound a little like me. I am 32, I get home anywhere from 6:30-9:00pm M-F. I have been with GT since the first installment. I however have 3 kids, all under 4. I work 7 days a week. I am the only money maker in the house. I may not be as family oriented as you though. When I get home, when I want to relax playing a game I do just that when I want. I work too hard to not take out some type of time for myself. The last thing I want is to come home to a house of chaos. Granted that with this release of GT, I have only played consistently since the 1.05 update. I might be on the PS3 about 4-12 hrs per week total. Depends on my work schedule. I have to fit everything in around my work schedule - Family time, leisure time, and house work.
 
I feel you guys, all of you. Thanks for filling up my thread with such nice comments. Keep up the good work!👍
 
im in the same boat, married with 4 kids ages 7,6,3,and 2. after dinner, baths and cleanup its 7pm and i usually spemd an hr or 2 with the wifey, then i play for about an hr then off to bed. aspec lvl is 20, bspec is 13. but lately i let bob run loose while i take care of things around the house.
 
Im In the same position with kids and the other half getting control of the main tv. So I went out and bought a 19" HD tv and plonk it on the coffee table and sit on the sofa next to her and still manage to have a conversation sometimes.:)
 
Great thread and so relevant to a lot of peeps including myself. I see most people in this thread are late 20's/early 30's (I'm 33 with a 9 month old girl). This means we were the first generation of gamers playing with the likes of the C64/Amiga/Atari St/NES/Master System/Megadrive/SNES etc etc. Back in the day I had all the free time in the world. Oh how times change, but you know what, that's life. The kids with all the free time now will be in our boat in 10-15 years, at which point our kids will have grown up/flew the nest and I'll be gaming all the way to my first state pension lol.

I work 37.5 hours a week and get home about 6pm. Once my baby girl is in bed and we have eaten tea its usually around 8-8.30pm. Some nights I'll spend with the missus but most nights thats usually my cue to get my gadgets out. My missus understands my hobby and its good to have free time. I bought her Sky+ and a 32" Sony Bravia upstairs and she has the laptop to keep her quiet. :)
 
Menown
You do know that Black Ops is M/PEGI18/18 rated right?
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Yea, I am not so much concerned with violent games warping his brain. I guess you really have to judge by the actions of the child and the maturity level, but int he end it's just a game and as long as they are old enough to realize that, then I don't see an issue.

He is a straight A student, does not get into fights or altercations, and is respectful...well most of the time ;)

My wife on the other hand is not as laid back as I am, and limits his play time to weekend evenings only. School days are all about school, homework, and sports! She does not like the Call of Duty style games at all, but until he gives her a reason to take it away, she defers to me.
 
My wife is taking the kids to California for two weeks in a couple of days, I'll actaully have time to play more than an hour a day.
 
Im 47. Wife who is 24. My kids are 15 year old twins. Only need to keep the wife happy. Pretty often. Hahaha, the kids? Well they can program a vcr, so they can amuse themselves. I cant. So i play GT5. Life is great.
 
I have three kids 3, 8, and 14 and a Wife. I tend to play for 2-3 hours 1 or 2 nights a week. Sometimes my wife gets annoyed, but if I only do it occasionally it seems manageable. I do spend a few minutes here and there doing trades etc, which seems OK. I did get carried away one night and stay up to 1:30am trying to gold some race (4 hours total time). That got her riled up a little.

She was in the hospital out of town about 2 months ago. She had surgery and spent about 2 weeks in there. I work full time and the kids spent most of their time at the grandparents. After the kids went to bed I went home to an empty house. I was doing GT5P at the time and entered the last WRS. I managed to place in the middle of division 2 that week even though I qualified in division 4. It's amazing how some practice time can make a drastic difference to my driving. It's not the way I'd like to increase my playing time though.
 
I am 31 and have a 10-month-old daughter. I will get home around 6:30pm very night and unless my wife found a way to make dinner and watch my daughter at the same time (aka it's simple) I start making dinner. While I do that we set my daughter in her high chair in the kitchen and feed her dinner. Usually we will do one 4 ounce dish of baby food (homemade) and then give her finger foods and juice in a bottle to keep her happy while we work. Usually dinner is ready by 7:30 or 8:00 and we can set our daughter in the living room floor on a blanket with her toys. If she is fussy we have to take turns eating.

Once dinner is finished one person cleans up while the puts the baby in her night-night outfit. Then my wife puts her to bed and usually goes to bed soon after. She always went to bed by 9:00, even before the baby. At this point it is between 8:00 and 9:00. Now, it is my time.

I play, look at the clock, realize I need to go to bed soon, and then play some more. Despite my best intentions I usually don't get to bed before 1:00 AM. Sometimes it has been as late as 2:00 or 3:00 AM. I get up at 5:00 AM I will often B-spec in my hour in the morning when I am getting ready but my wife and daughter are still sleeping.

I also will get some occasional time in when my daughter is happily content playing on her blanket. This isn't devoted to any real progression, but is for just fun running about in a car I am toying with or track creation or B-Spec. I can't do anything requiring my 100% constant attention, like a tight race.

Anyway, I am at level 24 A-spec and Level 23 B-Spec (and > < that close to Lvl 24) and have over 7 million credits in my account.

I took the distracted time as a chance to earn cars, money, and experience in B-Spec. Now that I am in the Extreme events I will just set B-spec up in an overpowered car, set my pit strategy and do family stuff for an hour. For the holidays that meant a movie on TV, Netflix on the Xbox, or reading books. Whatever is going on I have taken advantage of any time the PS3 is not needed at the moment to run grind B-Spec.

But the key I have found to be able to get my GT5 time in is that I get the same amount of sleep now as I did before my daughter slept through the night.
 
I tried teaching my 5 year old to play. He had trouble keeping it straight in the Indy race. He has to practice more so he can grind for me, LOL.
 
Hi folks, first post here, spent a long time reading the "whining" threads, but finally found a spot to poke my head out. I dont technically qualify for the ops title, as Im married to my job, I have 118 kids, er employees, and spend 90+ hours a week at work, and Im 35. What I do have in common is a lack of time to devote to an incredible game, after 6, 16 hour days per week, it tests my resolve to progress, Im at A-22 B-28, you can tell Bobs been working harder than me!
Big hurrah to all the dads out there!
 
jmb27
My wife is taking the kids to California for two weeks in a couple of days, I'll actaully have time to play more than an hour a day.
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Sir, I envy you...
 
Funny how much we're all alike, I'm 26 with a 16 month old boy, and I'm having a little trouble selling the wife on the idea that a g27 with a Wheel Stand will be a great tool for teaching him to drive. On normal days, I get home from work around 6, and I play with my son and put him to bed while my wife works out. Then when she gets home, I run to the gym while she fixes dinner. We eat and watch tv for a while, and she usually falls asleep early enough that I can get in a couple hours of GT5 (or Madden Ultimate Team) before I get too tired.
 
I am 36 years old, and am married with 3 sons(9,6, and 3). I work 12 hour shifts, days and nights. Luckily these are 3 on 3 off, so on my days off in the week I get the chance to play whilst my boys are at school. When it comes to the weekend's when I am off, I tend to spend time with my family, and maybe only go on in the evening. Unfortunatley I am only level 22 A spec and have not done any B spec yet! I think I may let my son's have a go at that for me.
Great thread.
 
jjaisli
Sometimes a pictures says a thousand words... :)

picture.php
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That is awesome.

I'm 27 and live with my girlfriend who's 24. I've been thinking about getting married and having a kid. And I then realised, is there an age limit to gaming? Is it kind of juvenile? I often think maybe I'm getting too old for games, but there are people who love movies, and people who play golf every weekend, why should quality games like GT5, Read Dead Redemtion, Uncharted etc be considered playing games. Like someone said, it's a hobby.

At the moment I'm on leave and my gf is working and so I have all day to play, otherwise when I'm back at work, I spend time with her during the week and play for a few hours on weekends.

I guess it'll get even trickier when I have a kid.

http://eviluncle.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/mario-dad.jpg
 
JaiAE86
I'm 13...

I don't have kids, don't have a job, don't care about homework, or school for that matter, and play GT5 14 hours on weekends and 8 to 12 hours on the weekday!

I don't think I'd be able to bear having a kid eating up my GT5 time! :nervous:
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Coming from johnnyko the highschool teacher..
Work ur butt off a little more now and when u grow up u can have the cars in the game in real life.

Coming from johnnyko after 3:15...
Work ur ass off now so when life actually gets fun in ur 20s and you can do some real damage picking up a different girl every night in ur 500hp supercar and hittin the clubs like a cawk star.
 
Ishie
So you have dinner at 9 pm? :S
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That doesn't sound crazy when you have kids and don't get home until 6:30 or later. Oh sure, I can grab Fatty Donald's on the way home and we can all eat hunched over on the sofa like neanderthals. But I hope to teach my daughter better habits, and have medical issues that require low sodium foods. If you want a freshly cooked, healthy dinner 9:00 PM is not implausible.
 
Marchbrown
YO JJ. What kind of wheel dose your daughter use? - It sort of looks like the new thrustmaster 500 but in Yellow.
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Definitely not the Thrustmaster, as her's comes with a shifter! :lol:
 
I don't have any kids but my brother in law has 2. When I visit he usually plays and despite 2 noisy kids and my nagging sister he has always managed to keep he's cool in game and sort out the kids when needed.

I admire that, maybe Ill get that superpower too when I have kids.
 
I'm 27 and have a 3-month-old son. I usually get home from work between 6 and 8pm, play with my son for a while, eat with the wife, then get him to bed, and the wife to bed shortly after. By this time its usually around 11:00 to 11:30, and a few nights a week I'll get in a bit of GT5 until about 1am. The other nights I've either got work stuff to do before heading to bed, or am just beat and head to bed with the wife. Weekends are generally off-limits for games, would rather spend time with my family.

I applaud everyone who is putting their family before games (GT5 or otherwise)!
 
This thread is my life... :-)

39 with a 2 year old and another due in March. I get home around 6:30 and immediately get bath and bedtime duties, plus doing dinner. By about 8 pm we are normally done and my daughter is in bed...usually then it is TV time with the wife. I might get 1-2 hours every few days to play. After the next baby comes I'll probably get less.
 
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FoolKiller
That doesn't sound crazy when you have kids and don't get home until 6:30 or later. Oh sure, I can grab Fatty Donald's on the way home and we can all eat hunched over on the sofa like neanderthals. But I hope to teach my daughter better habits, and have medical issues that require low sodium foods. If you want a freshly cooked, healthy dinner 9:00 PM is not implausible.
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Yeah - can't tell you how many times it is 9 pm and my wife and I are looking at each other realizing we haven't had dinner!
 
your lucky guys
im 40 yr old man with 2 kids 18months and 3yrs.i arrive home from work about 5pm and till 6.30 my time is spent playing with my kids and having tea.then at 6.30 we both get them to bed so you would think im ok now but no chance as my other half loves modern warfare2 so she is on it till about 11pm while im listening for the kids waking up.then after 11pm i get my gt5 kicks untill about 1am

a spec 13
b spec 19
 
This is my life as well. I'm 35 and have a 17 month old boy. It's a real tough balance. As soon as you find a rhythm, it changes all over again. It's nice to hear from many like minded individuals in the same boat. Same with the support from the non-parents. I'm glad I waited until my 30's to have kids- it is more life changing than you can ever imagine. All for the better, but surfing the net out of boredom and sleeping in on weekends is gone for at least the next 25 years (we plan on having more kids).
I'm at 17 A-spec and 2 B-spec. It's all I can muster when the dishwasher and bedroom TV require major maintenance within 2 weeks of each other. I've been real busy becoming a household repairman, on top of a more than full time job and being a cook 4 days a week.
I have four days off over the new year and would dig some online racing for once. An organized group of mature adults would be nice.

Good thread!!!

-Hamid
 
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