Sometimes, life just gets in the way, doesn’t it?
Stupid life. You work one job, two jobs- maybe even three jobs (at least I do); you spend every waking moment teaching your child and yourself how to survive life, and thrive within it. And when you get those rare moments of precious time, you fire up the Xbox, the Gamecube, hell – even the old Super Nintendo. You sit down with your mug of cheap wine, push aside piles of toys, unmatched socks, maybe even a cat and you put your feet up: What happens next? The three year old who’s been sleeping soundly for two hours while you caught up on housework, is suddenly and inexplicably wide awake, wanting your attention.
As much as you love that amazing bright eyed little one, you stare longingly at the startup screen of your heart’s current desire. You close your eyes for a few moments, praying that maybe- just maybe, he is going to fall right back to sleep.
Nope.
Sometimes, You Just Need You Time
Every parent has that moment, at the end of a long day, a long week – where you know you deserve just a little bit of ‘you’ time. Maybe you’re gaming with your significant other/co-parent, or maybe like me you are a single parent. You’re just scraping by with your sanity, and you need to blow some crap up to make it through another day.
You want to think with portals to avoid thinking about laundry and bank accounts; build an 8 bit anti-gravity rainbow house with entirely glass walls, so for once you can look down at the creepers, and the monsters in your world and know that you’ve got an 8-bit diamond sword, and you’ve got this shit.
You do deserve that gamer parents, you do.
(Welcome to my Minecraft getaway: my rainbow house, four blocks off the ground. With complementary glass porch out the open door on the right, a corn field below, and a whole colony of glow bugs.)
Make PAX East Your Gaming Getaway
So fellow gamers, fellow parents, and new virtual friends – Pax East is my oasis of wonderful gaming-related vacation, and it should be yours too.
I took a deep breath, and left the laundry, cats and responsibilities at home. (And the little one, although I am desperately looking forward to the year when he is old enough to appreciate the wonderful world of Pax.)
I dove headfirst into indie games, new card and tabletop adventures, new friends, and an all-around amazing time. Don’t misunderstand me, I love my son more than anything in the whole world. I love downloading new games on our iPad and my iPod for him to play, I love teaching him how to play Connect Four, and I was a proud parent when he yelled “Xbox” at our Kinect and knew exactly what he was doing.
But gamer parents, you need this.
Take the Leap
You may not know that you need this, but you do. You need to trade in your overwhelmingly pandemonium filled lives, for just one day (or three) of loud, busy, visually stimulating gaming submersion. You know you’ve got advil in the medicine cabinet, pack that. You’ve got a card game none of those other moms at playgroup would ever even dream of trying, pack that too.
Start saving now, right now (you’re going to need to bribe some family members to spend some quality time with your bundle of joy), so when you see a copy of that long forgotten game from your childhood, you can bring it home to make it a part of your child’s memories too. That coffee you were rewarding yourself with tomorrow- skip that, you need this more.
The Adventure is Worth it
In the last 36 hours I have played and demo’d more than 10 games on all different platforms. I’ve exchanged phone numbers and email addresses with people from all over, and from all walks of life. I’ve gone to incredibly moving panels about gamers and depression/anxiety (www.takethisproject.com), learned how to run a Child’s Play fundraiser to help children in pediatric hospitals have fun and not lose hope (www.childsplaycharity.org). I went to the Loading, Ready, Run panel and laughed harder than I have in weeks, almost as much as today when a man in a horse head sat down next to me and gave me a copy of the Cards Against Humanity 3rd expansion set – apparently on camera.
The People are Worth it
Today I met the directors of Kickstarter, the creator of Cards Against Humanity Max Temkin, and literally bumped shoulders (and exchanged a hug) with the infamous Justin McElroy of www.polygon.com. I bought my son a Link hat, and grabbed him some Plants vs Zombies mini-plushies (a game that at three years old he can play on his own). For myself I grabbed the incredibly addictive Zombie dice and Fluxx card games to share with my fellow parent friends to share with their kids – after they themselves learn how to play (over drinks of course).
The Games are Worth it
I’m bringing home a list of games for the next year that will help keep me sane in those brief, precious moments where I remember that I too deserve some “playtime”. More importantly I am going home to hug my little boy, and play Angry birds with him. And when I get home with sore feet, a lingering headache, and 20 pounds of swag- I will be going home with the memories of another fantastic PAX, and a huge smile on my face. When I empty the dishwasher, vacuum up the cheerios and shovel the snow out of my driveway, I will be doing so with a recharged soul and a full health meter (thank you Purel).
… and You Deserve it
I’ll have a fresh reminder that, sometimes even though life gets in the way, we gaming parents have an incredibly unique set of upgrades in our metaphorical inventory. We have fantasy, sci-fi, adventure, graphics, sound, pride, and among other things – community. Things that I am thrilled and relieved to have found again and again at Pax East.
What will you find?
