Already addicted to gaming and worrying about how this will combine with parenting? Fear not. It’s the same thing really.
Dedicated to my long-suffering co-addict and husband in crime, the top 13 ways in which parenting is just like gaming.
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You know that every creature has special abilities,
and you’ll never beat the game if you don’t figure out
how to best exploit these…
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- You already do something which is *very* bad for your relationship unless you’re in it together.
- You’re already used to staying up all night fighting howling monsters and then feeling completely broken when you have to go to work the next day.
- You are used to grinding pointless daily quests which you have to repeat over. And over. And over.
- If something goes wrong, you just go back to the last save and try again. And again. And again.
- You know that each time you think you’ve mastered a new level, «your princess is in another castle» and you’ll have to regroup and move on.
- You’re used to having to re-gear all. the. time. due to constant expansions to the game.
- You know that bag space and the contents thereof will determine how well you’ll fare on any excursion.
- You fully expect that as soon as you’ve fought off one wave of hostile invaders, another one comes along.
- You know that when someone reaches a new level, they require you to make an achievement sound. And that higher level achievements require better material rewards to keep everyone happy.
- You are used to getting covered in slime / mud / various bodily fluids in order to get stuff done.
- You might as well do Elimination Communication, because you know that as soon as you catch one, you’ll want to «catch them all»*.
- You’re used to trying to collaborate with people who completely lack social skills and appear to have no concern for anyone but themselves.
- You know not to add more than 4 other people to your party, as it would mean converting to a raid group / getting a bigger car. Thereby keeping the world population in check.
*Thanks to you know who you are in the EC group for this 🙂