Brittens 2007/ Familittens 2007

SSH · Mon 28/08/2006 12:25:25

OK, here's some thoughts on the whole idea of people with kids possibly being banned from brining them near any Mittens/Brittens events:

What do people feel about a separate Familittens event. Here's my pros/cons.

Pros
1. Kids wont disturb those who dont like kids/have hangovers/feel grumpy at that moment
2. Drunks/grumpy/stupid people wont disturb the kids
3. Parents can talk about nappies, vomiting, potty training etc without disturbing the non-parents
4. If Alynn comes we can do wife-swapping, etc.

5. People without kids who would still want to come would be welcome
6. Need to run police checks on random internet people who want to meet your kids?

Cons
1. CJ, AGA, scotch and other people I'd like to meet probably wouldn't want to come
2. Might be too tame for anyone who did come's tastes
3. My bins would be overloaded with nappies
4. Obviously any kids would still need to attend with their parents, so its not an open invitation to the 13-year-olds out there (is that a pro, maybe?

)
5. Maybe some resentment abotu exclusion from the main meetings. This would be mitigated if (1) was not an issue.

So I'd like some discussion on this, and also an indication of who, kids or not, would be interested in a tamer version of these meet-ups. I don't want to put pressure on anyone: I wouldn't expect CJ (or anyone) to feel he "has" to go to some event. If it turns out that its just Nikolas and me, then we'll sort something out between ourselves. Probably for those with families, its much more expensive (and complicated) to travel, so we need to get the location right to allow as many people as possible to come. My kids will both be over two, so the "free infant" on planes stops

AGA · Mon 28/08/2006 12:55:56

My only thought is: what could you actually do for a week/weekend/whatever, with a load of kids and the obvious need for some relatively strict rules? I know parents can find it in themselves to discuss their children for hours at a time, but what would everyone else do. Obviously you and Nikolas would be fine, but it could be a little uneventful for most people.

Pumaman · Mon 28/08/2006 14:36:35

Yeah, I'm not sure what the activities the event would include. Presumably you wouldn't be able to go out to a restaurant or bar in the evenings because the kids would need to be in bed, and in the daytime you'd only be able to do things where the kids could be catered for.

I'm sure a meeting of AGS parents could work out fine because you're all in the same situation, but you're right in that I for example probably wouldn't attend.

If you really want to come to a meet up, put your kids in kennels for a week and pop down to Brittens

Radiant · Mon 28/08/2006 14:40:21

I can see where you're coming from, but I don't think I'd be overly interested.

Helm · Mon 28/08/2006 14:49:40

Even when girlfriends or wives attend mittens, it's more because they're involved in the scene in some way than just 'here is my family'. They're also adults, so that makes activities easy to do.

SSH · Mon 28/08/2006 15:04:01

Well, I would expect that sometimes the kids and the other-halves woudl go off and do stuff together sometimes, leaving the AGSers to actually go and do pub/adventure/whatever things, so its not as if we're would be going to spend a week in soft play centres and the Disney shop...

YicklePigeon · Mon 28/08/2006 16:21:57

I can foresee this:-

"MUM!!! I don't want to go walking!"
"Daaaaaaaaaaaaaad! I want to go to McDonalds!"
"I'm boooooooooooored. I want to go home."
"I want an ice cream!" "You can't have an ice cream we are nowhere near an ice cream vendor" "I WANT AN ICE CREAM! waa waa waa!"
"I want to go into town with you!" "You can't, we're going to a pub, it's for adults only." "I WANT TO GO TOOOOO! *throws a hissy fit*"

:

The above is that true it's almost not funny anymore....but then, I can imagine "adults" performing those same lines. *shudders*

Regards,

Yickle.

Nacho · Mon 28/08/2006 16:34:44

And Helm, we can forget that, even posting less, all the "girlfriends" who came to this mittens, were actually members!

I don't feel like "Becky is DS's girlfriend"... no. I feel she is Becky, "member 1721" of the AGS community. I haven't seen her work here, but I have seen her posts, and I am sure she is collaborating with Adam in some degree in the game making process, same for Dominika and Lore.

About familymittens... I don't think it could work. As CJ said, wifes are welcome, I guess, if they are convinced to come and meet the weird AGS friends, but you should look for a shelter for the kids during that week and come alone, or with adult company... $:-\$

SSH · Mon 28/08/2006 16:45:40

The thing is with my kids, if I have some time not with them and with my wife it is so rare and precious, I'm not going to go and spend it with a bunch of internet nerds

On the other hand, I'm not going to go off on my own for an extended period either, so I think unless I can do one of the meets as a flying visit easily (and that pretty much means that it is somewhere north of Leeds) then I won't be at one for a decade or so...

Nacho · Mon 28/08/2006 16:53:04

Quote from: SSH on Mon 28/08/2006 16:45:40
The thing is with my kids, if I have some time not with them and with my wife it is so rare and precious, I'm not going to go and spend it with a bunch of internet nerdsÃ,Â

Preciselly.

Nikolas · Mon 28/08/2006 17:01:37

I don't see why there can't be two different venues at the same time. The family venue for me, SSH, Alynn (in which case everyone would want to attend

), Vince etc... with families, and the other venue with the normal mittens followers. Considering that the venues are in the same place, I can bet that some hours a day I can leave my wife and kids and come meet the rest (as I did for exmaple with Radiant when he was in London, but then things got screwed up as I was with fever and he without mobile batery... slightly off topic...). Going to a pub after 9- whatever does not seem to me as a problem at all, or actually staying up all night. On the other hand I don't think that anyone will mind if I take my kids to check out some Scotland castles (for example that is), and anybody else that wants to join in will be mroe than welcome. Of course those who join will have to be ready for the extensvie talk about nappies, poop, poty training and all kinds of boring stuff.

I consider it as this: I live in London, where all my friends do. When I want to meet with them, I can either dump my famiyl and meet them (which does happen, but not a lot), or invite them at home, where they have to respect my kids. Being in holidays even for an extensive weekend, does strike me as the same.

Am I wrong?

Disco · Mon 28/08/2006 17:14:20

Hey hey hey kids are alright. At Sporrans, Alba played dress up and acted out a story improvised by SSH, his wife is very nice and made completely vegetarian dinners both nights I was there, and we even managed to go out crawling for pubs twice. It was the true essence of fun

The family atmosphere is nothing to discount right away, though I guess it isn't for everyone.

Next year it's your turn Nikolas

Nacho · Mon 28/08/2006 17:27:07

You ask if there's something wrong in your argument Nikolas... And there is. You say that if we go to a place with kids we should accept the rules of the host. That's preciselly the main concern. If there are going to be such rules, many won't want to come.

So, the solution is to change the host, therefore, with your rule of 3, this new host would put set this rules, which might include a "no kids" one. Does your rule still be applied? Because therefore, no kids...

I think it's quite easy...

Another thing if the family men come to a brittens hosted by a non-family-man AGSer, and pop up to say hello a couple of hours per day. I think that would be ok.

And Disco, your argument can't really be applied here. I think we're not discussing if SSH, or Nikolas along with their families, could be supperbs hosts for you, or for me and Lorena. We are talking if they would feel comfortable with a group of internet nerds who only have 2 or 3 weeks per year to meet and want to concentrate all this fun in such short periods. It's not the same example at all, sorry.

Nikolas · Mon 28/08/2006 17:45:42

Well Nacho, that's why I mentioned two different venues.

You can go adn get drunk all the night, and do whatever you want and smoke and all that, where you stay (at a campsite for example), while me and SSH and anybody else can stay smoke free etc... So no problem there.

In the time where we meet together, if there are kids there needs to be some repsect, but we (I certainly and I guess SSH also) will make sure to come along and meet and spent time with the other AGSers 'off-house' and 'off-kids', so no rules at all.

If you don't want to the castles and all that, because you can't handdle kids or families, it's totally acceptable and this is why the 2 different venues exist. There is always the possiblity that my wife will be too tired, or bored, or want to go shoping, in which case castle time will be kid-free and AGS friendly.

I mean it's simple. If you come to London and stay at a hotel, won't you want to meet me? We will meet. I'll make the best to meet you outside my house and without my family (cause let's face it, even I feel more free this way). After that I will invite you to my home for dinner, and drinks and whatever. After all after a certain hour kids go to sleep and except for noise restriction no other restriction apply really (unless I will have to lock any doors??? which I doubt). Something like that. If you want on the second night to go to a pub, I might follow. The third I probably won't. But you will have the other AGSers to follow and I will have the other family members who may (or may not) agree with me.

Still I'm a patient man.

I can always get myself with my family towards Edinburgh and thus meet SSH+family and anybody else in the way (for example Matt, who is in the Middlelands...) . For another mittens I will have to wait at least a year (or maybe more). IF dates work fine I may have vacation where my wife does not and my kids could be in Greece with their granny so everything would be settled, thus believe me I would follow you!

Nacho · Mon 28/08/2006 17:53:14

As said, I would be perfectly comfortable with the situation... I am moving to Canterbury this spring to spent a week with Mark Hill and his wife, and the two kids (A friend of mine, there are pics of him in the Mittens photos)

But I am not sure about the others. And, to be honest, if someone is NOT coming to some of the meets, I'd preffer them to be people I haven't already met... I promise to pop up if I go to London or Scotland, I really like familiar enviroments...

But I am still unsure about the mix of that atmosphere with the one I've seen in the meets.

Dunno, I don't really want to be the paladdin of the "not for children!!111" attitude, since, I repeat, it does not represent a big concern to me.

Haddas · Mon 28/08/2006 18:29:51

Can it BE any tamer?

passer-by · Mon 28/08/2006 19:12:18

I never thought AGS was a closed club. If it is, I'm at the wrong placeÃ,Â :-\Ã,Â Ã,Â People should make the most of those traditional mittens for as long as they last, because it seems inevitable that in the future there are going to be many small gatherings worldwide due to the international character of this community and some of them will have specific characteristics. There's no reason to make a fuss about it. You can work harder on CJ-cloning if you like

but that's that.

What I read in all these post-mittens-family-or-wherever-it's-next mittens threads, is just that the AGS "kids" have grown up, that the AGS community has grown and that some of the "original uniform AGS group charm" is lost, but this is not a bad thing, if you ask me. It only shows that AGSers can walk and talk at the same time. I mean they have separate, evolving lives, which is good, which is creative.

Would you rather see AGS community trapped in those "time bubbles", a frozen moment of past glories just before the Pluto's revenge comes upon us,

(which will never come of course, because that's what time bubbles are for?

)

Nacho · Mon 28/08/2006 19:29:13

Wait... Does that mean that saying that bringing kids to meetings can be a bad idea is wanting to freeze the time?

Wow...

passer-by · Mon 28/08/2006 19:44:48

Quote from: Nacho on Mon 28/08/2006 19:29:13
Wait... Does that mean that saying that bringing kids to meetings can be a bad idea is wanting to freeze the time?

Wow...

I think I mentionned "many different gatherings with different characteristics" in the future as people grow up, which means they are still a part of the community but they also live their lives and althought the traditionnal "once a year mittens somewhere and who can make it makes it and has fun and CJ is always there" is a good and original thing that anyone would enjoy, it might have to change a little.

I wouldn't want a toddler or a six year old ~~devil~~ child when I'm on this kind of holidays, but this doesn't mean those people should be completely left out. As someone said, they could live nearby and spend some time with the group. Or have a separate meeting. Or sell the children to get discounts. Whatever...

The idea is that you meet people through AGS but if for some reason they change hobbies later in life (although I can't see why would anyone want to change sprites for nappies

), you still talk to them or visit them or want to meet them anyway.

If I had come to Spain, I'd probably want to do some sightseeing (I love historical sites and folklore) and spend much time with the group but not the entire time. Is that equivalent to death sentence or do I get away by finishing five difficult games without walkthrough??

Nacho · Mon 28/08/2006 20:10:01

What we are discussing here is that brittens can be made in a house with two or four little kids.

As everything you mentioned in your post was not related to the topic I won't... well, I can't, reply. I don't think I've prohibited SSH or Nikolas to make a family mittens or something... I just say that a familymittens and brittens together shouldn't, as far as my expererience says, work.

And about what happened in Spain... dunno, you should have came in spite of ASSUMING that we are not able to do sightseeing, visit historical sites and learn folklore. Are you saying that we are a bunch of internet drunk nerds without the necessary sensibility to do such things?

Maybe the second sentence of your post before last was correct, then...