Hey Everyone,
In many of my posts I comment about parenthood and life as a working parent gamer. You have seen pics of my youngest in a few posts (my oldest hasn't been available or willing in the past) and have read comments about the limitations placed on my time by my duties as a father. But what I haven't talked much about is how I make my hobby time into time spent with them.
Both my girls have an interest in my hobby stuff. Whether it is the RPGs or the minis, they both find them cool and share ideas with me and even play with me from time to time. This is the most obvious way to share hobby time with them. But I have recently found a couple of new ways and will share couple of examples we have come up with over the last few months.
The first way is to find a way for them to help with the painting. For me, this means having my youngest apply black wash to figures. This is a low risk activity for me to let the five year old do. I can mix the wash, give her a brush and she is happy to go to town. If she lays it on a bit thick, I keep a constant eye on her and correct as needed.
Another way has been to get them involved in the terrain building. Every piece of naturally occurring material you see in my terrain projects, with the exception of the pine bark, was supplied by my girls. I have often sent them out to collect sticks and squirrel-chewed pine cones. They also keep their eyes out for things they think will be useful in my stuff. Most recently, they supplied all the course gravelly bits for my rock formations. This last bit has even turned into a way for them to earn a little spending change.
You see the girls gather smaller stones from around the property and then crush them into the gravel themselves. They wear safety goggles and collect the gravel by size and type of rock and sell it to me for $1 for ever 8oz cup they can fill. I get good quality scenic gravel and they get to supplement their allowances while venting a little nervous energy and aggression out on some poor unsuspecting rocks.
It's awesome and it makes me feel a lot less guilty when I spend time working on my stuff.
Take care,
-Eli
In many of my posts I comment about parenthood and life as a working parent gamer. You have seen pics of my youngest in a few posts (my oldest hasn't been available or willing in the past) and have read comments about the limitations placed on my time by my duties as a father. But what I haven't talked much about is how I make my hobby time into time spent with them.
Both my girls have an interest in my hobby stuff. Whether it is the RPGs or the minis, they both find them cool and share ideas with me and even play with me from time to time. This is the most obvious way to share hobby time with them. But I have recently found a couple of new ways and will share couple of examples we have come up with over the last few months.
The first way is to find a way for them to help with the painting. For me, this means having my youngest apply black wash to figures. This is a low risk activity for me to let the five year old do. I can mix the wash, give her a brush and she is happy to go to town. If she lays it on a bit thick, I keep a constant eye on her and correct as needed.
Another way has been to get them involved in the terrain building. Every piece of naturally occurring material you see in my terrain projects, with the exception of the pine bark, was supplied by my girls. I have often sent them out to collect sticks and squirrel-chewed pine cones. They also keep their eyes out for things they think will be useful in my stuff. Most recently, they supplied all the course gravelly bits for my rock formations. This last bit has even turned into a way for them to earn a little spending change.
You see the girls gather smaller stones from around the property and then crush them into the gravel themselves. They wear safety goggles and collect the gravel by size and type of rock and sell it to me for $1 for ever 8oz cup they can fill. I get good quality scenic gravel and they get to supplement their allowances while venting a little nervous energy and aggression out on some poor unsuspecting rocks.
It's awesome and it makes me feel a lot less guilty when I spend time working on my stuff.
Take care,
-Eli
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Excellent. I have two girls as well and like your kids have taken an interest in my hobby. Both paint from time to time and the eldest has started playing some games with me. She doesn't know it yet but I'm grooming her to join my D&D group in a few years time.
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