It was just me, The Penitent One, and Our Lady of the Charred Visage. I was ducking and dodging purple laser beams like a pro, and she was down to less than half her health. I knew I would defeat her this time.

Then my 3-week-old daughter woke up and started crying.

While feeding her, I kept running through the attack pattern in my mind, desperate to hold onto the feeling of accomplishment and pending victory that awaited me in Blasphemous. By the time I got her back to sleep and unpaused the game, I died in less than two minutes.

In that moment of rage and disappointment, I wondered if having a kid meant saying goodbye to gaming.

Have you ever thought to yourself, I want to get better at games, but I don’t want to destroy my life? We’re here to help with a special week dedicated to all things video games and health.

Before I get too deep in the weeds, I love my daughter. I wouldn’t trade her 6-month-old habits for anything. However, parenting can significantly affect your emotional, physical, and mental health. I just never thought it would make me question my relationship with video games — a medium that’s been in my life since I was 5 years old.

As a kid, I’d watch my parents scribble away in a notebook while playing Myst. My brother, sister, and I would sink hours into Disney platformers and Jet Set Radio Future, and Saturday nights meant coming together as a family to play the Monkey Island series.

As an adult, I left corporate America to explore the gaming industry. Ten years later, I’m pretty peachy working as a PR Manager for Schell Games and writing personal essays when the mood strikes me.

Before my daughter was born, I’d sink 20 hours a week into my indie-centric backlog. A Friday night ritual included a glass of wine and perusing the newest releases on the Nintendo store and Steam (adding to my backlog). But after my daughter arrived, being unable to play games on my terms as a release and an escape led to a negative mental spiral that took a lot of effort and grace to halt. Losing that boss fight in Blasphemous was the moment I realized just how deep the changes of parenting truly go.

Team Cherry

When I sat down to try to play games again, Hollow Knight this time, an array of negative emotions bubbled to the surface:

I should be sleeping, exercising, or doing something more important while the baby is napping. Is gaming really important?

She’s probably going to wake up the second I need to really concentrate and get focused. What’s the point of even starting?

There goes my ability to do anything I want to do when I actually want to do it. My life isn’t my own anymore.

Hindsight being 20/20, I was veering …….

Source: https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiRGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LnBvbHlnb24uY29tLzIzNTM5NTgxL2hvdy10by1wbGF5LXZpZGVvLWdhbWVzLWFzLWEtcGFyZW500gFRaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cucG9seWdvbi5jb20vcGxhdGZvcm0vYW1wLzIzNTM5NTgxL2hvdy10by1wbGF5LXZpZGVvLWdhbWVzLWFzLWEtcGFyZW50?oc=5

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