Question to all you dads (arcades and newborns)

[emb]

My wife and I recently had our first child two weeks ago. Excluding the lack of sleep, it has been the greatest two weeks of my life.

 I have found myself to be so busy that I have not even had time to think of playing my MAME cabinet until just now (hence this post).

This thought spawned a question:

How long was it before you had time to play your MAME/arcade cabinet after having a child?

[yotsuya]

I'm going to flip it around on you, brother- I didn't even build one until my 3 oldest were all COLLEGE AGE! 

[mgb]

I'm not sure you can put a time on it.
enjoy your newborn now, there will be plenty of time to play later.

I didn't have a cab when my kids were born, but back just before my youngest was born, I decided to take up the drums.... That didn't last

[emb]

I'm not sure you can put a time on it.
enjoy your newborn now, there will be plenty of time to play later.

Oh I definitely will. I hear the time flies pretty fast.

I may have conveyed myself incorrectly in my previous post. I should have said that I have not even thought about arcade games in two weeks, which is pretty surprising. At the moment I don't really have a desire to play them for quite some time.

[Vigo]

Congrats, dude! Nothing more special than newborn time. Having just gone through the newborn stage months ago, I can vouch just how unique of a feeling it is. You just don't realize how happy you can be while at the same time stressed to the brink of insanity.

Speaking on all video gaming in general, here is my experience:

I seemed to find that I played certain video games when my kid was a newborn, but it was completely gaming wrapped around the situation. When I had to stay up at 2 in the morning trying to get my kid to sleep, I sometimes played bejewelled and rocked him in the chair. It was a game with no time limits, no attention needed. It was just something to do to pass the time.

When I found the time where I needed to wind down for ten minutes, I would often play an arcade game. I didn't have the time and energy to invest anything real for video gaming, so it was just a quick game here and there. If I only had a couple minutes, I would play a game of robotron.

When my son developed a regular sleep schedule, I would spend some time before going to bed myself to play games, maybe an hour.

When my son got to the age where he could crawl around, I found much more time to play video games for a length of time. My kid was more interested in moving and shaking, and he didn't mind if my attention was not always focused on him anymore. Of course the flip side is that my son is getting much more fun to play with each day, so playing with him often outranks video games.

[Unstupid]

Don't expect to be doing anything arcade/mame related until your youngest child is old enough to enjoy them.  See you in 5 or 6 years!   

[Blanka]

The kid starts to like it around 3 months. Then you can play again. With 6 months he will start to interfere with the buttons (I assume its a he as you are a men )
With little girls it might take little longer.

[newmanfamilyvlogs]

I seemed to find that I played certain video games when my kid was a newborn, but it was completely gaming wrapped around the situation. When I had to stay up at 2 in the morning trying to get my kid to sleep, I sometimes played bejewelled and rocked him in the chair. It was a game with no time limits, no attention needed. It was just something to do to pass the time.

When I found the time where I needed to wind down for ten minutes, I would often play an arcade game. I didn't have the time and energy to invest anything real for video gaming, so it was just a quick game here and there. If I only had a couple minutes, I would play a game of robotron.

This. There were many late nights pacing with a baby in a shoulder sling playing various little games on my Droid. And the 'couple of minutes' thing is one of the exact reasons I built a cabinet. It took around 4 months for me to find the 10 hours it took to complete Portal 2, but I can squeeze in a few minutes of Robotron almost anytime.

Don't expect to be doing anything arcade/mame related until your youngest child is old enough to enjoy them.  See you in 5 or 6 years!

My 3yo and 1.5yo are already learning to take turns playing Golden Tee. Kids will take an interest in what you're interested in. Just be sure you've got some milk crates or small chairs for them to stand in to reach the CP (:

[gilby4runner]

Once they start sleeping through the night you will get back into it.  My oldest is 3 and he is excited about the make build I currently have going.  Congrats by the way!

[Donkbaca]

It depends; you will find that with children, your free time drops dramatically.  It now depends on what you want to do with that free time: watch TV, play games or sleep.

My oldest daughter is 2 and a half and she loves the arcade machine, but it only holds her attention for like 5 minutes at a time.

I guess the answer is, its up to you and how high of a priority gaming is in your life

[leapinlew]

Don't do anything drastic dude. You'll have more free time soon. If your thinking you should sell off your games, don't. At least, not yet. Give it some more time. A lot changes and it changes quickly.

My daughter just turned 1 and we now have a schedule which allows me some free time to get back to some of my previous hobbies. Like Donkbaca was saying, you'll have to decide what you want to do with that free time. Most times I opt to play on the floor with her, but I do sneak in a game or two when she's napping and all the house chores are caught up.

[EightBySix]

Warcraft went out of the window for me, as did other games that demand a sustained attention span.

I'm not sure you can put a time on it.
enjoy your newborn now, there will be plenty of time to play later.

Also, it wont be long before they are beating you at Mario 4d or whatever it happens to be. 

[ChadTower]

It depends; you will find that with children, your free time drops dramatically.  It now depends on what you want to do with that free time: watch TV, play games or sleep.

My oldest daughter is 2 and a half and she loves the arcade machine, but it only holds her attention for like 5 minutes at a time.

I guess the answer is, its up to you and how high of a priority gaming is in your life

+1

I didn't have cabs when my kids were born but I was a big big console collector.  I had spent hours a day prior to that gaming.  Once my older son was born I didn't touch a console for 6 months and didn't even notice it.  A lot of things happened in the next couple years including a second son, job loss, new house, moving across the state, and a car accident, so I didn't get back to any real gaming until my older son was maybe 5.  I didn't miss it at all in the interim.

[HaRuMaN]

My daughter is 16 months... she'll sit on my knee for about 5 minutes while I play something. After that, she wants down to play.   

[lordnacho]

Congrats.  

Get your game on during naps and at night.  Kids sleep a lot, eventually.  I'm in teething phase with my 2nd now 

[Rando]

My machine is in my basement opposite an inflatable bouncy thing.  When I take my 3 yr old daugher down there to bounce I always fire up the arcade machine.  After 10-15 minutes of bouncing and crashing around, she wants to see "monkees!" which means she wants me to play Donkey Kong of Donkey Kong Jr.  Neither are my favorite games so I'll usually try to veer her to watch something else, Jungle King or Frogger sometime work, but usually I have to play some DK.  She hates the Space games.

With the 6 week old it's a bit harder, can really play joystick only games while holding that one. 

[supadave]

I have twins.. 3 year old girls. I can't play anything still. They want to play with me which is great and cute etc. I entertain them with my machines but for actual playtime of my own it is really tough. One thing for sure, If you ever want to stress test a couple pinball machines just sit a couple 3 year old in front of them and let them go mad on the flipper buttons. It's fun to watch them but at the same time I cringe a little over the excessive button mashing.

[lanman31337]

I have a 2 month old.  Evenings when he's asleep is about the only time I get.  Other than that, I wanna spend oodles of time with him.

[newmanfamilyvlogs]

With the 6 week old it's a bit harder, can really play joystick only games while holding that one. 

+1

i got really good at one handed Puzzle Bobble with our second, playing with her half asleep on my shoulder.

[TOK]

Having a kid kind of increased my activity in the hobby... Before, I spent a lot of time doing outdoorsy stuff -dirt bikes & quads, shooting, camping. When my daughter was born, the games gave me something to do that I could work on at home in small blocks of time... Playwise too. I'd play multiplayer stuff on the PC for hours. It just doesn't work with a kid. Arcade games are a perfect fit for gaming in small blocks of time.

I started my MAME cab while my wife was pregnant, and now have like 8 vids, two pins and a dedicated gameroom, all done while making sure my family got all the attention they need. If I can make that work, anyone can!

[Necro]

My son basically delayed my cab being completed for ~2 years  

[vanrose72]

My son, Zander, was born about eight weeks ago on August 22. I started my cab project in January and tried hard to get it finished before he was born.

I didn't seriously play it again for at least a month after his birth, and I've gotten on it only about twice.


Sidenote:

I enjoyed putting both Zander and my cab in the "King of Kong Jr." video I made for an '80s-themed Halloween party this year.

[leapinlew]

When did babies get so cute?

Oh yeah, when I had one. Nice job dude.

[Rando]

I enjoyed putting both Zander and my cab in the "King of Kong Jr." video I made for an '80s-themed Halloween party this year.

Lol,
Awesome vid, and love his faces when intensly playin!!   Quite the button masher, his small hands might do better with a ball top though? 

And great name, we were considering it with an "X" if we had a boy - Xander.  Nice. 

[lordnacho]

I enjoyed putting both Zander and my cab in the "King of Kong Jr." video I made for an '80s-themed Halloween party this year.

Haha nice.  He'll get DK one day!

[vanrose72]

Thanks for kind words! Also, thanks to emb for this thread, allowing us to share our thoughts on fatherhood and cabinet-building. I'm sure we all are anxiously awaiting a time when our offspring will appreciate and enjoy our arcade games like we do!

lordnacho1: Yes, Zander will get that DK someday soon, undoubtedly when he's a little older! 

Rando: My wife and I obviously like the name Zander/Xander. You should totally go with it if you have a boy in the future!