Three Survival Keys for the Married Sports Gamer

[Steve_OS]

LOL, love the comments. But ya, it's ALWAYS something...

[Da_Czar]

Re: Three Survival Keys for the Married Sports Gamer

Absolutely GREAT article... Loved it so much I finally made a digg account and submitted the article... GREAT read !!!!

[rockchisler]

Re: Three Survival Keys for the Married Sports Gamer

Thank god Im not married or have kids..Yea me

[Pete1210]

Great article and funny. Married going on 15 years here. My wife is an early riser so by 9pm she doesn't want to be bothered and I have my game time. Having 2 boys is also a bonus. My 9 year old is a great sports gaming companion.

[kerosene31]

Nice article and so true.

After being married 9 years it does get a little easier. It is seriously very hard to get to a good place with this. The tough thing is that gaming time isn't "your" time if she can come in and bug you anytime.

Some tips that work for me:

-Build a gaming room (man-cave). This is vital.

-Remind her of how expensive and time consuming real sports are. You need equipment, will be gone for hours playing and of course off to the bar afterwords with friends for some "post-game" analysis. When you compare gaming, it is actually cheaper and of course she knows where you are!

-When all else fails, get a good pair of headphones and crank them up to where you can't hear anything else. Just remove all the frying pans from the house first.

[K_rob11]

This is the first article that I have read here at OS that wasn't a game review. This was great! Made me laugh out loud a couple of times because of how I relate to it. As others have already stated, wait until you have kids! You will have to soon make the critical decision between sleep or continue your franchise? I have successfully trained my body to only need 4 hours of sleep!

[NZ Buccaneer]

I introduced my wife to Carcassone - which we now play most nights three times - and playing league games of Madden online she knows that someone else had to partially schedule a time to play too.

Great article - it's amazing that all wives seem to like home improvement/decorating

[ghm125]

I think part 2&3 are huge keys to continuing gaming for yourself,but my wife understands when football,basketball and baseball begin,and new games are released...its my time for the next week or so..then it diminishes somewhat,but the finding the right time to play,is really key.......or at least my key......

[DJ]

I hear ya. It's really tough now because we just bought a new home so all of our time on weekends is devoted to home-improvement projects. The 360 was supposed to go in the basement, but we don't have a TV down there yet, so my gaming time has really been cut down. Thankfully I have a PSP and DS that I can use while she's watching her shows on TV.

She is understanding of my passion for gaming, though, and will cede control of the TV to me a few nights a week if there's nothing on TV. Otherwise I play in the afternoon (I work split shifts) or squeeze in a game either before I leave for work in the morning, or before going to bed.

[kenzil]

Great article...my wife and I have an understanding. She knows thats my down time from being a very hard worker. Kids (I have two) make it even more challenging.

[DubTrey1]

Great article - I have to say I have been a gamer for most all of my life and married for 10 years - I have been able to find a perfect woman that falls asleep nightly by 11pm - even on weekends - and am able to get my gaming on regularly for the most part for all of these years.

Now, there are obvious exceptions:
> Nights we are up watching TV shows from the DVR, or movies -
> We have 2 kids (4 and 2 yrs old) so, I have to make time for them, but fortunately they go to sleep by 10pm... or my son sits next to me and plays his DS, so it's a win/win there.

All that, and 4 hours of sleep or so nightly....

[Jay Bishop]

As a 13 year vet of the marriage game (with 3 kids), I can say that is does get better. You eventually come to an understanding and you pretty much learn the when and how of your "game time." She is NEVER gonna be interested in SPORTS GAMING. My daughters aren't either. But the ultimate gaming pill for women of all ages.....VIVA PINATA. It's the female Madden! LOL.

[Lieutenant Dan]

I'm very fortunate that my wife is an avid gamer and tech/gadget geek. So she actually encourages me to play games, and it's what we do together for 'down time' after work and on weekends.

In fact, she even has her own 360 and LCD tv w/headphones, and we game on two separate sets right next to each other :^)

For sports gaming, she actually stayed up with me till 1:30 am last night helping me scout for my NFL draft in HC 09! She loved it, and it's not unusual on a night she's restless to ask me to play football or any other game to help her go to sleep to. LOL

Lucky in Memphis,
Dan

[elprez98]

I'm very fortunate that my wife is an avid gamer and tech/gadget geek. So she actually encourages me to play games, and it's what we do together for 'down time' after work and on weekends.

In fact, she even has her own 360 and LCD tv w/headphones, and we game on two separate sets right next to each other :^)

For sports gaming, she actually stayed up with me till 1:30 am last night helping me scout for my NFL draft in HC 09! She loved it, and it's not unusual on a night she's restless to ask me to play football or any other game to help her go to sleep to. LOL

Lucky in Memphis,
Dan

Jealous.

[madcap08]

For the majority of guys what ever it is you like, be it sports gaming or whatever, be prepared to give it up. Its not that they dislike video games in particular they just don't like your attention to be somewhere else for such a large chunk of time. Women aren't just jealous of other women they are jealous of everything.