The Gamer Parent Initiative

We’re field trip chaperones, carpool chauffeurs. We organize bake sales, troop activities for scouts, chore schedules, play dates, projects, programs, grocery runs, weekly dinner menus, and software updates. We have jobs and we hold down the fort at home.

We also organize guild activities, raids, and community events. We’re tanks, healers, and DPS. We’re the snipers laying down cover fire, the commanders of armies, leaders of civilizations, captains of starships, unlikely heroes against a worldwide threat.

We’re Gamer Parents.

Even though we live in the 21st century and video games have been around for over 60 years, there seems to be an unwritten rule that states adulthood/parenthood and gaming cannot mesh well. You can’t be a good gamer if you have children. You can’t be a good parent if you game. You must be a slacker in society if you game. You must be a bore to be around because you’re a parent.

The list of assumptions goes on and on, and I’ve heard a lot of it from both adults and kids.

Well, it’s time to put an end to all of that. Welcome to the Gamer Parent Initiative. Each month, I’ll sit down with a gamer parent of the community and talk about life, parenting, gaming, and anything else they’re willing to share about their experiences. And, like so many gamers and parents around the world, we’re all quite different from one another in so many ways— but we’re bonded together by two simple aspects:

We’re parents, and we’re gamers.

Meet the inaugural panel of Gamer Parents:
Esmeralda Sky, host of the Casually Casual podcast and mom
Darryl (aka Hend) of The Training Dummies podcast and dad
Zuulzilla, mom, writer, blogger, and creator of the Surviving Azeroth webcomic
Ken (aka Kanter), dad, husband, and casual MMO gamer
Heather (aka Mominatrix), mom, wife, and gamer
Jason (aka Fenjayminor), dad of five and EVE Online gamer
Lisa (aka Zerena), mom, former GM, and WoW player/enthusiast
Cynwise, dad, blogger, expert on all things warlocky in WoW
Kimmi (aka Friar Kimmi), mom and priest of WoW
Kaptain Kaos, dad and Warcrafter
LilPeanut, mom, Warcrafter, blogger, and typographist/graphic designer
Jon (aka Karn), dad and Brewmaster Monk for the guild Convert to Raid
Alice (aka Pwnderland), mom and gamer
ChingShi Bonney, dad and gamer hailing all the way from Germany

As each profile goes up, the names on this page will be linked directly to those profiles; alternatively, the profiles will become available upon mouseover of the “Gamer Parents Initiative” link in the header. So, stay tuned! We have some exciting things happening!

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