'My Gaming Days are Over?'

TLDR SYNOPSIS:

Gaming is for everyone.
Everyone benefits from it
And while not everyone enjoys games, those that do come in all sages and sizes.
and if you don't want to...say that.


I was in our local gaming store on international gaming day 30.03.13 waiting for my husband to sign up for the Game of Thrones regionals when i overheard a man at the counter who was being encouraged by the stuff to try out some of the games they had set up for the occasion utter these words.
"'I have a 3 and a 5 year old my gaming days are over'"

There i was in the store herding my five year old (she's almost 5) and following my three year old around hearing someone say they'd given up because they had kids.
It made me sad
and it kind of annoyed me.

First of all sad.
Games aren't just for adults, nor are they just for kids, I've mentioned before converting more grown up games to be played with younger people.  There's so much to learn for everyone involved its just so sad someone would give up on the chance to share such wonder with their kids.

What annoyed me later as i thought about it though was it sounds like yet another grown up blaming them giving up on something on their kids.  Sacrifices have to be mad as a parent absolutely  but it'd because you want to do it, not because your kids demand it of you.  And if you give up on a hobby you enjoy because you have kids, that's also your choice.  It's not their fault, it's not on their heads its on yours.
So many people just give up on something they want/enjoy because it just seems too hard, and i have on a number of occasions pulled my husband and myself up on doing exactly that.  But what i find more bothersome is the lack of honesty that it seems to come with.
"It's too expensive
It's too hard
I have kids now i can't do that
it's too complicated to organize a baby sitter"
Here's a thing.  Any hobby can be expensive but it doesn't have to be, i watched a review for a kids game yesterday called "Hello Sunshine"  after watching that i as thinking, ok well neat little idea, that i can replicate here in my home for free or if i wanted to package it up as something new for the girls i could probably do it with about $7.
As for the others, they can sometimes be the truth but they aren't a reason for quitting completely.
In the case of being a part of the board gaming community, our family only started after we had children, and it's done wonders for our family life.
These statements largely reek to me of 'I don't want to' or 'I can't be bothered'
And you know what, that's perfectly acceptable too, why is it in our world 'i don't want to' is so rarely an acceptable answer, so rare that people are constantly making up excuses or blaming someone else for their lack of desire to make it work.

With all that said.
I am a married mother of two girls whos grandparents are not only local but very involved in their lives, we have a support system that allows us to go to gaming nights sans kids.
But our gaming group meets every week and we just can't do that, it's unfair to everyone involved so, we host them here, the kids join in till bed time dinner time happens at bed time and then the adults stay to play.
There's a way, if you want it, there is a way..