I’m getting ready to be a daddy in March, and despite the fact that I’m getting some train stuff for Christmas, I have the sneaky suspicion I should beware getting to involved in any in-depth MRRing projects, because if what I’ve heard is true, my hobby time and budget is about to be seriously curbed (as it should, my daughter comes first, no doubt about it!).
Just curious how being a parent has impacted you in your model railroading…
Congratulations
I have two children a 4 year old boy and a 1.5 year old girl. As for my hobby its been at a stand still for about a year now.
I have a plywood deck and a layout plan prepared just really no money for it. Time wise I have a 3 hour nap window to do quiet modeling. My son is big into Thomas and he gets trains for birthdays and christmas. I have my two old lionel trains going around the tree so that is something.
We did go on three railfan trips, twice to catch UP’s 3985 and once to ride the Texas state railroad. I am hoping to start things up again but for now I read my quarterly UPHS publications and work on CAD drawings for my layout.
Kids affect every aspect of your life you will wonder what you did with your free time.
I add my congratulations.
I found that I had time for one hobby…Astronomy. That meant staying outdoors, under light-pollution-free skies, for long hours, but after the kids went to bed. I believe that my current involvement would not have been possible by a long shot if I had attempted to build a layout while the children are young.
Your wife will need a big chunk of your time for about the next 12 months, and maybe even 36 months. These years are critical for your long-term association and bonding with your children. Skimp now and pay later.
If you can get by with a modest, easily stowed layout in N scale, you will have lots to keep you busy, and not so much competition.
Later, you can introduce your children to trains, let them learn why they are so appealing and important to you, and let them decide for themselves if they wi***o continue in your footsteps.
-Crandell
I’ve got a seven month old. Over the past eight months, I’ve had basically no time to do any complicated modeling. We also moved, meaning that I no longer even have a layout!
But modeling is a big part of my life, and I’ve been able to squeeze in time for the hobby. Since I’m a proto modeler, I’ve been spending more time researching and organizing my data (while my daughter sleeps). I got most of my photo collection scanned, digitized and organized with my daughter in my lap. I’m tabulating train orders into an Excel spreadsheet the same way.
I’m still buying the occasional kit or engine, but since my budget is smaller, my purchases have become more targeted. Now that she’s sleeping longer and more often (she was pretty fussy for the first four months), I’m able to do a little modeling these days as well. Since she’s been born, I’ve been able to complete (except for painting) three resin kits and six structures. I’m working on a kitbash now, in fact (I’m waiting for the joints to dry while I type, and while my daughter is asleep!)
I’m planning for family inclusion when my daughter gets older. My new basement is unfinished, and I’m only planning on using about a third of it for my new layout (12x25). The rest will become a laundry, storage, and a kid’s play area/family room, sp everyone can hang out together while I work on my layout.
Oops, gotta go; she just woke up!
you should let your baby play with a real train.
I have a hobby?
It’s been sooo long since I’ve worked on the layout that I’ve forgotten what I’ve been doing with it! [;)]
Really it has!
Now with Liam, it’s going to be a little bit longer.
Oh well.
Gordon
At first you may be limited to MR after they have gone to bed. but as the child/children you acquire grow older those trains will offer you all a wonderful opportunity to share a hobby. Share the fun and satisfaction that comes with anything from a plywood prarie to a museum quality layout that is a multi generational family pride.
Enjoy them together, MY trains are certainly nice but OUR trains have it beat hands down.
Doug, in Utah
Your family is one of the few things in life that deserve your time more than your trains do. The trains will wait, but childhood is a fleeting moment, and you should involve yourself in it for as long as it lasts. My own daughter is 14, and finds the trains in “her” family room to be annoying, because they take up space. Still, I caught her admiring my roundhouse today, and it was a nice moment.
Your time spare time for things like a hobby will shrink for now. Do what many of us do, use the limited time to read up about the hobby and stay up on new trends. Read layout design books to learn how the prototype railroads operate, design yards, etc. Make drawings of a layout you would like to build. This is all passive but it keeps your interest alive for the hobby. Good luck and health for your new girl and mom.
Congrats to you on the new arrival that is coming. My girls ar 20 and 15 now. The first few years of them both being babies does take a toll on your fun time in MR and keeps you busy doing the dad thing, I did allot of sitting at the kitchen table in the early mornings, building kits and dreaming of building a layout.
My girls took a interest in the hobby when they got older, but walked away when they got into there teens. Between volleyball games, track, and other involvements nothing came of building a layout, but I had a blast watching my girls grow up and be good kids. I would never trade them for any layout.
But now they are older and caught up in there own lives, except the younger one, shes still in school, and I have been going after my hobby strong and hard for the past 7 years. You will have to give allot of your time to your children, but its worth it, even if you cannot do what you want in MR at that time. A cup of coffe and a MR kit is good in the morning, justt don’t do like I did, had the items stashed everywhere throughout the house.
well Casper (my son) is 6 in march and we spend time lots of it with the train…it is great…not a lot of purchases …but it has given way to streach the hobby dollar.
Congratulations Dad to be.
Spend time with your kids. The trains will be there 20 years from now. My sons are 29 & 31. I have been back in the hobbie for about 10 years now. do the numbers. My kids remember camping trips, riding go carts in the rain, & exploding gas grills. They didn’t even know I liked trains until my oldest showed an interest at about 11 or 12. That was short lived but thats OK we continued on riding go carts in the rain. Now they brag about dads trains to there friends. I have 2 grandsons 7 months & 7 years. The 7 year old cant wait to play with Poppys trains
Congrats on your upcoming little one! You’re embarking on an incredible adventure that will change your life (much for the better) in ways you can’t imagine. As a father of four (ages 11, 9, 8, and 4 months), in my experience you can remain active in the hobby and satisfied by LOWERING YOUR EXPECTATIONS. The three ingredients needed to pursue our great passtime are space, spare time, and disposable funds - you’ll find that two of those ingredients will be at a premium. Use them judiciously because you will be busy with your new priorities. You probably won’t want to launch into building that new dream layout just now, but can maybe catch up on some of those kits or half-finished projects that we all seem to accumulate.
Personally, I am hopeful that I can begin construction on my new layout this winter after three years of being basically out of the hobby (all of my Testor’s paint dried in the bottles, none of my Floquil did).
Good luck, and enjoy the ride. They really do grow up fast.
Jim
Kids? What kids?[:D]
Having the kids around, (1 son and 3 daughters), just means there is more stuff to drag along to the train shows or when we went railfanning. and yes, I would take them with ME, if that was the only way I could go to the show. (My ex could be a real pain to deal with most of the time.) Now the kids are old enough take are of themselves.
That’s one of the really great things about this hobby I really like. If I don’t have much money, I can always pick up a few detailing parts at the LHS and not be spending more than ten bucks.
Another thing is that alot of these projects don’t actually require a large chunk of time. Lately, alot of my recent projects have been done by doing alittle here and a little there. And I just now realized that I have been getting alot of things done recently. Go figure!
Now this part is getting more costly lately, but if you have a mainline nearby, railfanning is a great way to enjoy trains with only gas money and maybe a meal somewhere. And I think most people will vouch for me on this…after the little one is strapped in and the car engine is started, the kids are out like a light!!!
And alot of this is directly related to how much your wife understands you and your interest in the hobby. My current wife is great!! She often goes with me to shows or when I railfan. and even though the girls are getting older, they have been known to ask if we could go watch trains.
Life is GOOOOOD!!
Congrats on you new “hobby” [;)]
If it wasn’t for “The Kid”, I probably wouldn’t be in the hobby right now!
Thanks to him, together we have been building our layout for the last 10 years here!
I was working at a hobby shop when my son Sean was born. As I left the store on Christmas Eve, I grabbed a Bachmann Santa Fe set , the day he and his mom came home from the hospital, when he was 2 days old. I put it under the tree that year.
3 years later, after running that train under the tree, he knew he had a train, and he wanted more trains, so I got my old layout from my mom and dad’s house. We then rebuilt, expanded and are continueing our upgrades.
We both have enjoyed our time together working on and running our model railroad for 10 years now, and hopefully , sometime after he finds out about cars and girls, he’ll play with his trains again!
Kids give Dads an excuse for buying toys!
Rotor
1 child, Victor, 16 months old another, Emily, on the way. My 16 year old loves to run trains, he’s pretty good with a prodigy advance. His favorite train is a GO train since he sees them from our kitchen window and knows that daddy will soon be home. We were working together on the wiring yesterday and he was watching and handing me tools.
Congratulations! I have a 16 month old son, Nathaniel, and another (sex still to be discovered) due in May. I did not start the hobby until about 3 years ago, and I did not start my current HO layout until my wife was pregnant with Nathaniel. Having children does cut down on the amount of time that you can spend, but I will say that it is very worth it to continue. I finished the benchwork and laying the mainline last summer right before my son turned one. I still have not put up any scenery, but because the trains are running, I can take my son up to the train room and entertain him. I have a couple of sound equipped engines, and he loves to watch them and toot the horn. When ever I ask him if he wants to see the trains he goes right to the train room door and says toot-toot.
I bought him an extra controller for my Prodigy Advance and I am slowly letting him press the function buttons and control the speed. I also bought a 2-truck heisler that will become his first loco, when he is read to run on his own. (I got the slowest engine I could find for that reason). Trains and kids go together well.
Congrats! I had a thought, I wonder if more children would be hooked on the hobby if they were exposed to Real trains often while railfanning with parents during their early childhood(with earmuffs of course, don’t wan’t to hurt their little ears).
Welcome to 18 years of problems,scratches,broken legs and arms,monsters under the bed,late night diaper changes,colds,flu bug, “oh and dad can I use you’re car” ECT[#welcome]
But on a serious note…its not that bad at all. Sure the kid comes before anything else,but after that and if you have the money to do so model railroading after the kid. A daughter…yeah you might have model train money,but girls are more pricey then boys,good luck.
Patrick
Well here is a short rundown. Just about three months ago I was told by my very (understanding) wife, you should build a new railroad in the extra room. YIPEE!!! I was in hog heaven, but life has a way of changing things. I suddenly gained custody of my nephew, well, guess where he is now? So I suppose I’ll have to come up with another plan. I collected all the track Locos and rolling stock but now I don’t have the space. I still have an option of building another room on the other end of the house.