Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Growin Up

Since becoming a parent about 14 months ago it has had a considerable amount of impact on my hobby. With the support of a wonderful fiancĂ©, I was allowed to put a small card table up in the family room to act as a “hobby station” where I have a shelf my dad built to hold some of the models I was currently working on, a nice lamp, and all of my paints. When the baby first came home it was great while he was sleeping I could sit 5 feet away from him and watch him while I painted or built models. And I find that I don’t get out of the house as much, so a lot of that bar time turned into to painting time. I was able to spend a lot more time on my nerd games because I could paint and model from my house. So I would say I’ve actually seen an increase in the amount of hobby time since I’ve become a parent.

As for the negatives, I’ve seen a significant decrease in the amount of game time. I’ve built a table in my garage, and I have a buddy who tries to come over once a week to play Malifaux, which works out, because we can finish a game in 1.5 hours. Where a 40k game can take about 4 hours, and I find I usually don’t have 4 hours for a game anymore. I don’t get to play against a wide variety of people and that stinks…I’ve tried to reach out and meet new gamers and get them to come to the house and play…but that can be a little weird, inviting people you really don’t know to come over and hang out at your house.

I think any Gamer that’s a parent would say just about all the same things, and its nice to know that there are other our there who are just like me and we can bouce ideas off of each other and such. So thanks again to all my 40K radio FreeBootaz Forum Dads Club guys…

Honestly this whole post was mainly put up to show the picture above. My 14 mo Old son has finally figure out how to get to my stuff…So Anyone have any good advice for me? Is there a better way to shield my stuff? Or is it time to move everything down to the basement and just work on stuff down there? Anyways...i must say, i'm pretty proud of him for dragging the jug of coins over to the table and getting up there...good work kid...

3 comments:

Unknown said...

I just picked up miniature painting (Warhamemr fantasy) so that I can make my work life fun again (each miniature represent one of my staff) and it turns out, when I am painting my head got very quiet and I can finally relax, so any 'girls time' (yea, cheeky) turned into painting time.

Anyhow, I live in hong kong so our place is too small and I don't have a corner, I just stuff all the paints into a box which was a pinter packaging box, with tools and brushes and everything there. my kid is now 2 and a half so I really can't have them laying around the house.

by the way, most of the chemical are not good for kids as their nose is not fully developed yet, so it's best if you can set your station in a room or something.

Kenny said...

Hey Thanks for the comment...yea i keep all of my Chemicals in my garage workshop, and i NEVER leave any resin models anywhere near my kid, as resin can be dangerous. Thanks for checking out the blog, and i'm glad you can find relaxation while painting, i also find it to be a great release of stress.

StabbyTMP said...

those cantilever tool boxes with a little lock - you can put all of your tools and paints in the bottom, line the fold out trays with foam, and blamo - kid proof.