Riley June Daigle will be born march 22nd 2011.

That grumpy face is reminiscent of how I feel about FFXIV

I'm excited, man I'm really excited. To see a new life brought into this world, to watch her grow and become the woman she wants to be and not the woman the influences of the world would make her. School, boys, sports or academia (hell, both) its truly an exciting time for me. I think back to being young and digging through my parents book collection, their movies, my Dads old comics, the world was new. Everything had promise and they never had a taboo, if I wanted to know about something they'd tell me, sitting reading my Stepmothers Heinlein books as she watched over me making sure I didn't mess up the covers and genuinely wanting to know what I thought of them.

I'm also terrified, I mean scared to death

Riley has a long way to go before games come into play, but with every system under the sun around this house somewhere games are inevitably going to impact her life. What will she like? What won't she? Should I just let her run wild and play it all (my parents let me read everything they had) or do I limit what she can play? Should I impose my own personal taste? Should I try to explain why 2d gaming is still the best sit down and play time to be had? Or do I give her the history lesson? Try to put my 25 years of gaming into her brain and give her the history I lived? Or just let her run free and discover things at will?

Now I know there are a lot of other things to be worried about when raising a child and believe me, I'm just as worried about what school to pick, babysitters to use and boys (oh man, can't wait to terrrify the first young suitor who comes a callin). But gaming is one of the biggest parts of my life, I write these articles on the side, I game constantly and even her mother can rock the shit out of Mario Kart. So whats a young father to do?

My main concern are games marketed directly towards girls and how to approach them. If she picks up a copy of Imagine do I snub my nose and tell her its stupid or do I let her play and see if she shows interest? She really loved that new Disney movie we just saw, should I let her pick up the licensed game that I know is probably terrible or do I encourage it just happy at the fact she is in some way enjoying the hobby and helping her relate to me. As she grows I am sure she'll figure these things out and who knows she may not even like games, and that would be fine with me. I think my job as a parent would be to help her explore every possible form of entertainment and guide her through it all, never imposing my will and never being critical of her choices.

As a parent I will have to learn and grow with her, she may not think Donkey Kong Country 2 is the best game of all time and dammit, I've gotta be cool with it.