Comments on The Dice of Life: Do Single Parents Game (via Outsyder Gaming)?

Wow... that does sound like a bad situation. I don...

2009-07-13T16:57:09.707-04:00

Wow... that does sound like a bad situation. I don't think I would have been able to game with her after an incident like that. Not only was she mistreating her son, it was rude to treat a guest in her home the way she treated you. I sure hope she has changed some things in her life since then.

If that's what it takes to run a successful game with a kid in the house, maybe single parents shouldn't game at all. Of course, I'm sure she was an extreme example.

I think you have a point there. I do recall one s...

2009-07-13T13:21:11.658-04:00

I think you have a point there.

I do recall one single mother I gamed with for a short period of time. The group met at her house for game sessions. She had a large collection of pets around the house, and she was talk lovingly about all of them. Her child slept on a couch in what appeared to be a finished, closed-in porch while we were gaming. It seemed like she was always yelling at him. She would get angry with him if he woke up. I remember he asked me for some chips one time, and I made him a small plate with just a handful of chips. She began to yell at him because he was "begging for food." I was completely shocked. This was definitely not someone who had a good sense of priorities. After a while, I just had a hard time enjoying the game anymore because of that. It was a sad scenario.

Coincidentally, one of the topics I hope to cover soon will be what to do with your RPG supplies (i.e. - books, dice, maps, miniatures, etc.) when you have a small child crawling or walking around your home. Even beyond choking hazards, how do you handle a 5- to 8-year-old child asking about your RPG books, particularly those that have content inappapropriate for a young child (i.e. - sexual or violent images, adult situations such as death, murder, or moral ambiguity)?

Thanks for stopping by! I'll keep up with both dis...

2009-07-13T11:42:40.280-04:00

Thanks for stopping by! I'll keep up with both discussions if they amount to anything. Unfortunately, I'm beginning to wonder if single parent roleplayers even exist.

The more I think about it, the more I think that the reason this doesn't come up too often is because of gender stereotypes... trends maybe...

Single parent fathers seem to be outnumbered by single parent mothers, and female gamers seem to be outnumbered by male gamers. Thus, the overlap between the two groups is probably quite small.

Couple this with the tendency to cut back on gaming when one gets a family and... could it be that all the single parent gamers that do exist have to put away their dice?