Parenting and Gaming (IN PROGRESS)
Becoming a parent changes the way you interact with games, not only in regards to time spent, but also, as your kids come into an age where they can start gaming, you start thinking more about the types of gaming experiences you can share with your kids. I'm just making this list to document the games I was playing in and around parenting when my kids were babies and then shifting into the games we started playing together as they were able to hold a controller.
Of course I played a bunch of other games on my own time that I don't associate at all with parenting. The more adult oriented games on here, I did not necessarily play with my kids, but they intersected with me being a parent in a meaningful way.
The order of this list is chronological in terms of when I/we played them.
Of course I played a bunch of other games on my own time that I don't associate at all with parenting. The more adult oriented games on here, I did not necessarily play with my kids, but they intersected with me being a parent in a meaningful way.
The order of this list is chronological in terms of when I/we played them.
21 Games
My son was born in 2014, a week after I bought a new PC and was starting my second journey to Drangleic. This time on PC. Needless to say the "Always Online" nature of Dark Souls was not best suited to having a new born. But I will say, it added an extra level of excitement whenever I entered a boss arena, just praying that the baby wouldn't wake.
This was great game to have going on in the background. Take a turn. Go change a diaper. Take a turn. Calm the crying baby. Take a turn while feeding the baby.
This was one of those games that I thought I could play with my son on my lap, because the art looked cute and I thought he'd enjoy watching. And it went down well at first, but then he really didn't like Gumo throwing rocks down on Ori and it kind of freaked him out. He must have been about 3. So we put it down and I went back to it later on my own.
When my son was 3 or 4 he was into this. Though I was often the one holding the controller and he forced me to stay under the speed limit and stop at all red lights.
My son adored this game. Mechanically, he couldn't handle it, so I did all the heavy lifting, but he loved Bud and seeing us go higher.
We never completed this one. I did most of the heavy lifting on the platforming and he liked the levels her he could just run around swinging an umbrella. Eventually it got a bit scary for him, so we stopped and never went back to finish it. My daughter, though, is now trying to get into it. So maybe we'll finish this time.
We tried this one when my son was around 3, and while he couldn't really position things, we had fun tinkering around with it. I was also trying to re-capture the fun I had with "The Incredible Machine", back when I was in elementary school.
This the first time I remember playing a game with my son where we each had a controller. He must have been around 4 or 5. It was really rough at first, but started getting it over time and it was neat to see him start develop gaming skills.
The first family game we got for the Switch. It was such an easy 4-player game for all of us to get into because of the range of family settings. So we could put the kids on auto-pilot and my wife and I could still play competitively with each other. Good times had by all! And one we still return to.
We ended up getting this for my son during Covid and it was way too tough for him at the beginning, but over time, he got better and was making some really fun, neat levels. He also even made some for his little sister that she could complete on her own, which was really cute.
I know a lot of people think this is a lesser edition of Mario Party (I never grew up with this series, so I wouldn't know). But my kids adore this one and my daughter only recently got back into it, now that she is a couple years older and more capable and she got 100% completion on it.
This was fun to play through with my son. Me with the controller and us puzzling through things together. Then when he was a couple years older he came back and played through it all on his own.
Next stop on our Zelda tour was this gem of a game I never got to play as a kid. Again, this was more me controlling, and us talking through where to go as he wasn't quite ready to play on his own yet.
After a Link to the Past we went back to the start. We definitely had to look up a guide for this. And thank god for the rewind feature of modern emulation.
Our unfinished adventure. Even with rewind we really struggled and we fell off of this one. It was a neat game though.
This was a lot of fun and my son loved the scraps. I ended up playing through most of it and then he would take the controller in areas where there was no peril. My daughter also got into a bit, but didn't stick with it. She may go back in the future.
I got this as a birthday present for my son, probably around the time he was 5 or 6. Mechanically it was quite challenging for him at first, so I did the bulk of the moons to get us through to the end. But now that he's a little older he can do it all on his own.
Chaotic 4-player mode was a lot of fun, though my daughter who was only 4 at the time had a hard time keeping up. Thankfully the game is fairly forgiving on that front. My son and I also had a great time playing through Bowser's Fury with him as Boswer Jr.
This is a special one it's the first game we platinumed as a family. It's a great game and the kids absolutely adore it. My daughter even asked for the Astrobot plush from Santa last year, which delivered on.
My son and I played through the Messenger over the course of a year and it was really cool to see him develop his ability with a controller. When we first started, I was in controller most of the time and he would only tackle easy straight-forward areas with minimal enemies and not very much platforming. By the end, though we freely passing the controller back and forth and he was able to surpass me in some of the more challenging areas.
My daughter picked this game on a whim while browsing through the PS library. We quickly got hooked and while she struggled with the puzzle aspects of it, I helped her through. It was also neat that it supported 2 players for painting. This was her first big game that she played through with me without her big brother along for the ride. She loved it so much, we platinumed it. And it was fun watching her abilities with the puzzling aspects evolve over time.
