'The one thing nobody told me about having kids.'

The birth of your first baby brings forth what I fondly refer to as "the avalanche". The absolute onslaught of advice and anecdotes that comes at you from every direction. 

You may never have spoken to Mary in Accounts prior to your maternity leave but now, she’s front and centre imparting her wisdom on the right time to start solids. And the avalanche doesn’t stop as your little ones get bigger and you expand your family. 

If anything, it gathers more steam. 

You’d think, with all those words flying around that nothing could surprise you about having kids. That you’d been told all there was to know. 

But nobody tells you about time.

Or more specifically, the way it seems to speed up and disappear right before your very eyes.

Even more sneakily, the more your family grows, the older your kids get, the less time there seems to be in the day. Where once you spent almost every waking hour with your baby and toddler, it dwindles down to a couple of hours a day once the kids hit school age. Add in work, extracurricular activities, the 1737 trips you need to make to the supermarket each week to feed your growing brood and the depletion continues. 

Ironically, it’s around this time that you realise that time, especially time spent with family, is the most precious commodity you’ve got.

Yes, the toddler years of cartoons were great, but have you ever completely annihilated your 12-year-old in a gripping round of racing in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe on Nintendo Switch? It truly is a feeling like no other.

My kids are six, nine and 12, and with my husband and I both working outside of the home, time isn’t always on our side. And while we can’t magically make more hours in the day, our family has been focusing on ways to make the most of the pockets of time we do have together. 

Finding the things that connect us.

Image: Supplied. 

The coolest thing about having school-aged kids is the opportunities for activities that everyone can get involved in.

There are plenty of reasons why we love our Nintendo Switch, but playing together and connecting as a family is what counts the most.

My husband and I both fondly recall our original Nintendo Entertainment Systems as kids. The "grey brick" was pretty cutting-edge entertainment back then and let me tell you, Duck Hunt had never seen a player quite like me. 

It may have a couple of years (decades) on its predecessor, but Nintendo Switch is all about flexibility and co-operative play. TV Mode allows us to play together as a family, thanks to the detachable Joy-Con Controllers, while Tabletop Mode can be played wherever we are (hello multiplayer games, anywhere, anytime). 

You can actually connect (depending on the game) a whole bunch of consoles for multiplayer which is very handy as a family of five. And with family over in the UK, a Nintendo Switch Online membership allows us to catch up and connect despite the 24-hour distance. My kids can play Animal Crossing: New Horizons with their aunty and uncle or compete against their cousins in Nintendo Switch Sports easily, wherever they are.

And while we generally use Nintendo Switch as family, having the Nintendo Switch Parental Controls smart phone app linked to our phones gives us peace of mind for when the kids are using the console either at home or in "grab and go" mode. The app allows us to see what they are playing, how long they have been playing for and gives the option to put time and even age restrictions in place so we can ensure that our Nintendo Switch time is being used mindfully and sensibly.

Finding a family activity that we can consistently enjoy, regardless of how busy life gets, give us a chance to connect over something fun and mutually enjoyable. It's so important, as the kids get older that making the time we do have together, work for us. 

Sunday afternoon gaming tournaments are an absolute highlight, regardless of the season, whether or whatever else we might have going on outside our little family gaming bubble.

I’m just hoping that they eventually bring back Duck Hunt so I can show off my #madskills and then it’ll be perfect.

Connect with your family with the Nintendo Switch family of consoles. 

Online play requires paid online membership, and a paid membership to Nintendo Switch Online is required to use the Save Data Cloud. Multiplayer requires one compatible controller per player with games and system sold separately. 

Feature Image: Supplied.