So I had an interesting thing happen to me personally. I had my 9 year old daughter express some interest in my hobby. If you have younger kids you have most likely run into this before. They want to paint for a while, I stress the “a while” part. Don’t get me wrong being Asian I am down for the free labor, I mean my kids can stitch a NIKE symbol in their sleep but that’s another story. If you are a clever parent you might even get a great base coat out of the deal, then they move on to something a little more interesting no harm no foul. Anything beyond a base coat and you probably need to strip and repaint some mini’s but this is a small price for amusing your children and being involved.
I also am sure many of you have had your kids want to throw some dice and push around a toy soldier or two. So you puff up, put on your red shirt, and after you try to sell them things they don’t need or actually want you attempt to walk them through a game. At some point though it has been my experience that few younger children ever care enough to finish more than a few turns before something shiny, or Mario sounding catches there attention and they rush off.
.jpg)
So when I was getting ready to attend a local RTT the next morning and my daughter of nine years approached me and asked if she could come too I wasn't exactly sure how to handle this at first. My Daughter is less than nerdy by all conventional standards. She plays a few video games, and she reads everything she can get her hands on. However push comes to shove she is a girly girl. She always wears the popular clothes rocking the newest trends at her school. (For some reason all the girls locally wear crazy mis matched socks for example?) She is pretty popular and to say that she always has a boyfriend with another following close behind hoping to be next in line in some bizarre middle school Twilight saga would be an understatement. Also amazing since she still is at the age where kissing is gross, and maybe holding hands is ok. I am sure that 40k isn't very big on her radar is my point, and I know that kids her age haven’t a clue what it is for the most part. Now most my buddies would be excited at the prospect of shaping a young gamer to the community they are involved in. However this seemed liked jumping in the deep end.
Finishing one game while playing is one thing, but she wanted to commit to watching not even playing. Also not even one game at least three games to boot. An entire day of watching 40k dice rolling, trash talking, and speed playing. (I finish almost all my tourney games, I tend to play fast) Normally at our house we are all about go big or go home, and my kids are competitive but, I wasn’t sure she really understood what she was asking. I immediately pictured her playing her DS half the day and asking when we would get to eat, because she was getting bored. Let’s not lie tourneys can be long grueling days even local RTT events. Also do I want to bring the only little girl into the male dominated game store? No disrespect to my fellow gamers but some are more smelly than others, and some lack social skills or the ability to deal with adults I wonder what they do around kids?
I sat there all these thoughts running through my head about her simple question, but in the end I decided not to over think it. My daughter was asking to spend time doing something with her Dad, and who am I to deprive such a request. So I explained what a day would be like to make sure she had at least a little understanding of what she was asking. She was still eager to go.
So I agreed to take her and with that our Parenting Experiment had begun.