Thursday 9 February 2012

The Adventures of Geek Dad: Part 1

Good Thursday everyone,

So tomorrow my youngling will be 3 months old and so I thought it might be interesting to start an irregular feature all about my experiences trying to raise her while staying true to my geek roots.

See when my wife told me we were having a child, being honest my first thought (other than OMGWTF) was all about how my hobbies were going to be affected. Selfish I know, but I challenge you to find any dad who honestly thought different.

The funny thing was, it took that announcement to get me back into modelling and wargaming. Before then I was exclusively playing video games.

I suppose my reasoning at the time was I wanted to get back into a hobby that I could do in the same room as my wife instead of hiding away in my study, plus I was raised with wargaming and role playing when I was a kid and I'd love to do the same with my youngling.

Well the past few months have been interesting. And just as I originally feared my hobbies have taken a hit. But it's ok.

I'm not going to spout some nonsense about my youngling making everything worthwhile and wonderful, as truth be told there are occasions where all I want to do is turn on my PC and loose myself in a world of evisceration and gunfire, however because of one reason or another that is not a valid option.

One thing I did discover, something they never told me about: men actually can multi-task! Rewind about 2-3 weeks ago, it's a Saturday night, my wife is having a well deserved bath, and I've got a sleeping baby in her basket, while I am trying to rebase my paper masche.

After about 5 mins, just long enough for my hands to be fully covered in wall paper paste, guess who wakes up demanding a feed? So off I run to the sink to clean off my hands, switch on the kettle to boil the water, while that us boiling, cover the lid of the wall paper paste, grab a premade bottle for the feed, all the while keeping my two cats away from my paste/models (the love to eat paste it seems) holding the baby to stop her from crying and then finally giving a feed!

I don't know about you, but I call doing all that at once pretty good multi tasking.

Anywho, let's look at last night. For weeks I've been meaning to finish off my Dreamer crew, and last night I decided that it was time. So while the little one napped, I picked up my models and got my brush wet, all the while to the sound of Kubrik's Full Metal Jacket.

Sure a couple of times Mini Moo would wake, need a feed or a change, so I'd put down my materials, give what was needed, wait for her to go back to sleep and then carry on. It may not have been a marathon painting session of 4-6 hours that I used to enjoy before, but I still enjoyed myself and got the job done.

And I guess that's the point of today's post, yeah I've had to sacrifice a little from my past times as of late, but I'm still doing what I love, it just takes a bit of a compromise.

I'm just looking forward to the day when I can do this with Mini Moo, and maybe with hope actually win a game!

1 comment:

  1. Very, very true.
    The wife and I have a baby due on my birthday no less. The first thing I thought was "alright time to get some more crews as I will have to up my game to teach the bubba how to play".
    The hobby has already taken a huge hit but then I don't really mind because as you said it will all be worth it in the end.

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