Breakfast Topic: Are you in a parent-friendly raiding guild?
by Robin Torres 
Nov 13th 2009 at 8:00AM
It is very important for parents, particularly of small children, to get some child-free leisure time in every day. But you are a parent 24/7, so no time is completely child-free. Most guilds understand when you have to AFK for emergencies and you don't make a habit of it, but few guilds want you to raid with them if your AFKing is more regular. Also, start times for parent-friendly guilds are post-bedtime which is often a couple hours later than guilds with child-free players who eat dinner at their desks while preparing for their raids.
Are there many family friendly guilds out there, conducting raids around bedtime schedules and late night feedings? Two "advertised" in the comments and I know that Guildwatch sometimes mentions them in the recruiting section, but not very often. With realm and faction transfers easily attainable these days, transferring to a server with a guild more suited to parental priorities may be the right thing for many players -- if they know how to find them.
Are you in a raiding guild that is parent friendly? If so, what realm and faction and are you recruiting? Let's turn this Breakfast Topic into a listing for parent-friendly raiding guilds.
Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Raiding
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 5)
Rioriel Nov 13th 2009 8:11AM
I'd certainly hope so, though it's a bit of a juggle between avoiding bedtimes for little ones, and bedtimes for slightly older ones. We've a number of parents in our relaxed guild as well as teens who have to disappear by midnight.
When I see "parent" in an application my first thought is of maturity and having their priorities right, rather than Johnny Nohomework who whines and moans about purple pixels.
EU-The Sha'tar/Alliance/Assurance
Elliott Nov 13th 2009 11:37AM
Infraction - dentarg
We are a 10 man guild. Raid two nights a week. Week are working on ToGC at this point. We raid 6 hours a week.
There are 6 of us that have kids. We make do just fine. We are RL friends and I am sure this helps things a bit.
We do not do 25 mans because getting 10 people together is hard enough.
Scarsak
infractionguild.com
Lazarus2020 Nov 13th 2009 11:48AM
Being a parent does not make you mature; In non-tribal societies, there is no achieved status for maturity/adulthood...(this certainly holds true in western cultures)
if there was a such a list of achievements to qualify as mature.. being a parent, in an anthropological view, would be the last one of the list ....
Kylenne Nov 13th 2009 12:04PM
This kind of attitude drives me nuts. Breeding does not automagically make a person mature, nor is it a particularly good indicator of a person's maturity level.
One of the biggest immature assholes I knew in a previous guild not only had kids of her own, but ran a childcare business out of her home. Some of her sterling behavior included inciting loot drama in the middle of a raid, acting passive-aggressive toward the RL on Vent when she lost a fair roll to me (I was dating our RL irl at the time), and showing up drunk to raids, that is when she bothered showing up at all. Meanwhile, some of the most awesome, mature people I've been guilded with did not have kids.
All having a child means is someone's reproductive system functioned at one point. That's it.
Rioriel Nov 13th 2009 12:10PM
@Lazarus, Kylene:
Point taken. From MY experience on the realm I play on, the point is valid. I realise anyone can reproduce, I was thinking more of working, well-adjusted adults who can prioritise and schedule their lives. It's the students that are more often than not, more unreliable... I stress from my experience on this realm.
=]
Nick Nov 15th 2009 1:21PM
I don't care about PARENT friendly, I want a decent casual raiding Guild that'll let me in. I'm fourteen, it's not like I'm four, god damnit!
omg Nov 16th 2009 2:19PM
I am the acting GL of Midnight Fire of Aerie Peak(US) and we are a very family friendly guild. Not only in that we understand parental needs but that we have many family groups in our guild. My daughter is actually the GL, but currently I do most of the guild management due to her schedule. My husband is one of the officers. Because we have children in our guild we have very strict rules of behavior, including no swearing or sexual content in guild chat. We tolerate zero guild or loot drama. We hold our members to a very strict code of behavior in guild groups and out. My daughter started this guild over 2 years ago at age 11 and we now have a core of mostly adult officers and over 450 active toons from about 300 accounts. Probably about 1/2 our officers and members are women (yes they do exist in Wow) which I attribute to the tone we set in the guild which promotes mutual respect.
We have approx. 130 level 80s and, although we are a casual raiding guild, we raid about 4 times a week. We like to consider ourselves a hybrid guild that is a family friendly, leveling and casual raiding guild all rolled into one. Our goal is to provide a clean, safe, yet fun, environment for all.
If you're on Aerie Peak and looking for a family friendly environment then look me up! My main is Gorgonis.
Our website is: http://www.RuneSnaps.com
Rhaycen Nov 13th 2009 8:17AM
Parent Friendly, I find that an interesting term ... because it might actually better describe the Shadowblades of Gilneas then the usual family friendly tag we use.
Over time we have found that young kids usually do not make a good fit for our guild, as we do address very adult subjects freely in guild chat. But we have several parents in our guild and usually do not have an issue if a parent has to go AFK for something or another, even if it is during a raid.
As long as we're being informed that someone goes AFK and the reason why. It leads to many unhappy people if a raid wipes because one of the healers went AFK in the middle of a fight.
Rashee
www.shadowblades.org
Gilneas Horde casual raiding guild
Ratskinmahoney Nov 13th 2009 8:19AM
This may not really be strictly relevant, but do people know of many child-friendly guilds? My little brother got into WoW when I let him have a bit of a play on my account (shhh... don't tell Blizz). I've now bought him his own account and he's started to get quite into the game.
The thing is, he wants to join a guild, and understandably. He's only 11 and does need quite a lot of help in terms of people being willing to answer questions that would seem fairly noobish to older or more experienced players and I can't help him much as I live in a different country.
He's joined a few different guilds, but keeps running up against very rude, inconsiderate or impatient players and a few times he's been quite upset by general mockery and abuse in and out of the guilds. I know this happens to all of us, and maybe I'm being a little overprotective, but I'd really like to find him a nice tolerant guild (on any EU server) to level in and learn the ropes. Do these exist? Every pleasant tolerant guild I've been in has tended to have a strict over 18s policy, which is obviously not much help.
Rhoswyn Nov 13th 2009 8:37AM
Honestly I would be concerned about an 11 year old playing in a chat enabled game with strangers. There are some scary people out there. My daughter had to wait till the stated age limit of the game and is only allowed to belong to my alt guild where I know everyone.
Most of these "over 18 only" guilds are saying they don't want the responsibility of "babysitting" and are also protecting themselves from trouble.
Do the right thing and look after your brother yourself by either making a guild with him yourself, not letting him join a guild or just not letting him play.
Rioriel Nov 13th 2009 8:38AM
We're on an RP server (The Sha'tar), but I certainly wouldn't have any reservations about taking an 11 year old along on our adventures. Of the numerous people on our server, believe our RLs are the most patient and encouraging I've dealt with. Know-it-alls, patronising leets and lootwhoers are definitely neither welcome nor present. We're on Alliance: www.assuranceguild.com
Ratskinmahoney Nov 13th 2009 9:08AM
@Rhoswyn
I entirely share your concerns, which is one of the reasons why I'm trying to find a 'safe place' sort of thing. I do spend a fair amount of time playing alongside my brother, but to be honest I think he'd quite appreciate not being lumbered with his older brother all the time.
As for the stated minimum age, I wasn't aware that one existed. I should really have checked before I got him started I suppose. I'm sure the difference between concerned older brother and parent is quite I don't really have the inclination to stop him from playing if he enjoys it, and I doubt he'd listen to me anyway. I have and will put some more thought into setting up a guild with one of my alts or summat, but I'm a bit reluctant to stray into overprotectiveness.
@Rioriel
Thanks. I'll check you guys out, I reckon he'd quite enjoy the RP side of things too.
Tri Nov 13th 2009 10:39AM
I know a lot of people think that age limits for guilds is a bad thing. But as the guild master of a guild that has a 21 year age limit I have to try to explain a little :)
There's lots of stuff in the chats in WoW, that kids really shouldn't be exposed to.. Trade chat is a good example -_-
In my guild, we're all adults that play, and really has an impact on the humor in the guild. Yes, it's a very adult sense of humor, that kids really shouldn't be part of.. and since we're all adults, we feel that this kind of stuff is allowed. If we had kids in the guild as well, we couldn't enjoy the atmosphere the same way, if we had to continously watch what we're saying..
But look at it this way: Age limits on guilds don't only protect the interests of the adults in the guild - it also protects children :)
Ratskinmahoney Nov 13th 2009 10:55AM
I couldn't agree more Tri. My main is in a ten-man over 18s only guild, and it's by far the most pleasant environment I've found in WoW so far. There's a bit of adult content to our chat, which is why I wouldn't consider letting my brother join. The atmosphere is very relaxed, there's none of the patronising or condascending approach to interaction that seems to be endemic in Trade. People are mature enough to accept that a question is just a question, that there are actual real people behind every character, with feelings and intelligence and everything.
It always strikes me as sad that an innocent and sensible question asked in Trade is invariably going to receive a stream of condascending 'lol's and 'noob's.
I always like to think that everyone was once a noob to WoW, but apparently some people seem still to be noobs to RL.
It's a shame that there don't seem to be many mature in attitude guilds that cater for younger players. I guess the reasons for that are kind obvious though...
omg Nov 16th 2009 2:30PM
I commented before so hope this is not a dupe but I'm new here and not sure my other post 'took'. Anyway:
We provide a child safe environment and accept children of any age as long as they can respect and follow our rules. We have a zero tolerance policy for bad behavior from children AND adults including: swearing, drama, stealing, ninja'ing and disrespecting others.
I started to play WOW because my daughter wanted to play (she was 11 at the time) and I needed to insure it was a safe place. There are some bad things in WOW and I do not allow her to enter trade or general chat and she has the mature language filter on. A child needs someone to be around to help and make sure they are ok.
Gorgonis
Midnight Fire
Aerie Peak US
Hella Nov 13th 2009 12:13PM
I myself am not a parent but there are several in our guild (including our MT). So having someone say mid raid BRB the kids are up is not unheard of and most other people there use it as an excuse to go get a drink or something to eat.
We also start raids later then most guilds on our server because of this. When recruiting people we always say that alot of people in our guild have Jobs, Kids and Lives (although the lives bit can be streching it abit :p)
EU-Blade's Edge/Alliance/Joint Venture
kunukia Nov 13th 2009 8:22AM
AFK kid agro! Not unusual in my guild, but then, we are so casual, that weeks go by without a raid sometimes. Heh. People in the guild who raid a lot make associations with other guilds.
Frenariel Nov 13th 2009 8:27AM
We raid on EU alonsus (aliance) between 22:00 and 01:00 server time and have a lot of parents and cater for them in therms of understanding AFKs are needed or if things come up you might not make it or need replacing mid raid.
We do recruit currently and have cleared TOC 25 a few times.
check http://brg.guildomatic.com/ for more infor or signup.
Greenparty Nov 13th 2009 8:30AM
Reverb, an Alliance guild on Anvilmar has been around for over 2 years. Most of our membership is married or has children. We raid 3 nights a week around 6:30pm server. We currently have ToC25 on farm, two ToC10 teams and are working on heroics for each. Most of our membership is EST, so this allows us to raid after bedtimes for the kids.
Ours is a mature, respectful guild focused on endgame content with skilled players who happen to be parents.
www.reverb.dkpsystem.com
TheSipe Nov 13th 2009 8:40AM
I actually left a guild run by my family due to them not being as "parent friendly" as I would like. My guild had my parents and brother and sister-in-law in it and it was a blast. I was the only parent of young childeren in the guild so mine was the only schedule that had the bed time issue cropping up in it. I actually went onto for on Stormrage (US) just for that reason. Now about half of the guild are parents and post bedtime things get started. I'm of course still close with my old guild but this has made it easier on all of us.
Coarse of Stormrage(US)