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Comment by rthomas6 | Hacker News Reader

I used to play games a lot, and I don't now. It's not that I don't want to or that I wouldn't enjoy it, I just want to do too many other things more. I have a wife and a kid who demand a lot of my time, I lift weights, I try to play board games with friends, I work on hobby projects, I read books, I do chores, I go on trips. As much as getting immersed into the new Witcher game would be enjoyable to me, I just can't fit it in. All those other things are more important and make me happier.

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Similar situation here. With the time constraints imposed by kids you have to drop entire categories of activities, not just moderate them, because the baseline time commitment ("oh god, last time I played this was 2 weeks ago and I only played an hour then—I have no idea WTF was going on or how the controls work") and money (PC upgrades every couple of years, new consoles) required just can't be sustained at the incredibly low levels they'd have to to fit in with kids plus a bunch of other things.

You kinda have to pick 3-4 things to focus on and drop the rest entirely, not just cut back. If one of those is "stay sort-of in shape" then you're really limited. Most gaming just doesn't fit in any more. :-/

Everyone makes their own priorities. I have many friends with kids that somehow manage to find time to play video games. I don't find the time anymore and I don't have kids so I have no clue how they do it but I see them posting about them all the time. One has 2 kids, and other has 2 kids, one has three kids, another has 2. They guy who has three also manages to play guitar and do photography and raise 3 kids. I don't know how he does it

Kids triggered an impulse to take my career to the next level, so between work, family, maintaining a bare minimum level of fitness, and professional development, I've got nothing left to give games. TV has taken a major hit, too.

Something in my brain clicked after the first one was born... an ok-you're-an-adult-stop-fucking-around mode was triggered. The result is that the lack of free time doesn't bother me that much. Too busy and tired to care, maybe.

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