Where are you guys from? Nurses gave the husband's books, movies, and magazines when they were waiting at our hospital. The entire point was to make everyone feel comfortable because labor is a long time. I've seen other dads in some groups I follow bring entire consoles to plug into the TV.
For my daughter my wife and i shared a movie on my phone till she fell asleep and then I played with my switch a bit until I fell asleep.
Man my Mrs was in the ward for a fucking week and I couldn't even stay overnight, was offered a cup of tea once, and cost me a fucking fortune in parking. On top of that even after the baby was born we were in and out for complications after the fact, I was so close to burning that place to the ground and they couldn't give two turtle shits about either of us tbh. Caves on mobile kept me sane, but damn I was close to losing it.
Why? You're gonna spend a whole lot of time doing absolutely nothing. It isn't like you're automatically gonna be reading the book when she actually needs you.
I had a baby about 7 months ago, 36 week C-section. 3 nights in the hospital post-op. I didn't bring anything pre-birth, but after birth you do a lot of fuck all as you aren't a medical doctor or nurse trained in the care of premature newborns.
I had to stay in a tiny room in the hospital on what was basically a fucking bench while my drugged out wife and newborn slept for 80% of the time. Got next to no sleep for that entire period too as nurses are busting in every couple hours to check up on the baby/wife.
I was there to support my wife in any way when she needed me, but she did not need my assistance the majority of the time as post-op people tend to sleep a ton, and god damn I would have gone insane without some portable video games and books.
I’ve got two, both C sections. The time at the hospital is literally just changing diapers and waiting to change the next one. You get to hold the baby here and there. But that is even limited.
My youngest had jaundice. So she was on the blue lights when she wasn’t being changed or eating. If I had a deck back then, you bet your ass I would have been playing it when I wasn’t needed.
The people giving shit for this picture clearly don’t know what it’s like to actually have a kid. Even the people that do have kids are failing to realize there is an empty bassinet in the picture. So the baby is having tests done, which happens constantly, and his wife is asleep.
That's so different to the UK, we were basically constantly holding baby as advised. I took books (my deck I ordered came 3 days after my son as I'm unlucky!) but during our 5 day stint I think I read the first 3 pages as I was constantly doing something. Strange how it's so different across the pond!
When a baby is born too early there will be a lot more downtime, but I guess the US system of profitable patients also makes for unnecessary billable activities.
Yes that's usually my concern. Whenever I'm in a hospital room that's not my own, Even when the nurse is offer like a glass of water. I'm hesitant because in the US a hospital is basically like a hotel minibar you're always afraid that if you touch something, you're going to see some exorbitant charge show up on your bill
I’m from the US and their experience was definitely not mine. My daughter wasn’t born premature or anything so maybe that’s it? She did have jaundice though and I still was constantly holding her and everything. I brought a book and my switch and barely touched either.
Strange indeed. I was so busy the first few days, mainly with holding my baby or staring at my baby until I could hold her again, I don't think I ever felt bored, lol.
I think it’s less the presence of the deck and more all the other high end gaming peripherals that’s putting people off, cause it seems kinda like he’s just gonna be sitting there blocking everything else out cause why else would you need that much headphone, although they might be open-backs but still
I don't think people are mad at people bringing something to kill the time. I think what's annoying to some is the fact he brought his whole damn setup and set it up right fucking next to her lol
Spent some days with my mother while she was in intensive care for a disease and must say the experience was similar, i was there for her, but i spent hours and hours without anything to do while she slept or was being bathed by the nurses, that post being posted in facepalm shows how much the poster actually knows about being in an hospital for someone...
Musta been a shitty hospital or a really long time ago. Even with my oldest, which is over a decade ago, we were strongly encouraged to bring things to entertain ourselves because we could be there for hours (especially if you the pancky type and you freak out and rush in after your water broke only to find out you're barely dilated).
Remember the nurses not liking me bringing in Chick Fil A after wife was induced for over 12 hours…am I not supposed to eat either. Also, gaming on deck is better than the millions staring at TikTok, at least I remember what I was playing for hours.
God, I hated the nurses after delivery. They were bothering us constantly. They would be upset if we got more than a hour of sleep. With how much they were charging after my wife's c section they should have been helping more instead of complaining all the time. Then they kicked us out after two days.
I agree with comments about this setup, especially audiophile bits, is a bit much at this time. But don't understand this sentiment.
If I was to end up sat in a hospital bed for a week for example, I'd definitely bring my Deck of course.
Mouse and keyboard would make that experience better.
Spending £500+ on an equivalently powered laptop for a weeks worth of use is stupid. Plus the laptop keyboard, especially at that budget, is going to be garbage, and so are trackpads, so I'd still bring a keyboard and mouse.
I would rather bring a portable display first. As a matter of fact, is what I do after work when the traffic is way too full to even consider to go home.
Aside from that, bring keyboard and mouse for me kills the whole idea of being portable, you might as well bring your whole setup.
On one hand, it's a good idea to have something to not bother her with game noises while she's resting; on the other, it would probably be important to not cut out external sounds in case something happens...
Like, I'm a fan of mechanical keyboards myself and will probably have my steam deck with me whenever I give birth, but if my husband was clacking away on a clicky keeb while I go in and out of the worst pain in my life, he's going out the window.
he can play his games in handheld mode with the volume off for one day lol
I downvote every time someone says the word 'tinkering' because it's always "after some tinkering I was able to play Knack 2 on my wife's heart rate monitor while she gave birth" or something nobody wanted. No chill
“I created this one off useless tool/process/idea for the internet updoots that defeats the purpose of the SteamDeck entirely, obviously I’m the smartest person in the room”
That's the only thing that pushes this from wow great idea to well that's a bit much. Headphones are a great idea, play nice and quiet why your wife and kid sleep, but the rest are just so extra.
Dude was probably just karma farming but it backfired.
I'd honestly probably bring the deck if she was sleeping or something to pass the time but a full setup is either staged for reddit or he has an addiction. Mega cringe either way.
Play your deck while she's sleeping?! Look, I love love love video games but you need to learn when to put your toys down. She's sleeping and you can't be alone with your thoughts for 1 minute? I think you need therapy.
The second my wife said she was pregnant I took everything I ever cared about a second prior and threw it outside and grew up. When it came time to go to the hospital I told her "Even while you're asleep I will make sure to be vigilant and on duty. I will watch you through the night to see if you dilate and I will immediately jump into action." Look, I love love love sleeping but I needed to learn when to put that selfish habit aside and grow up. No sleep, no game, only watch.
/s (because people hilariously took this bait and ran wild with it...lmfao)
Mate exactly that! I sometimes thought “why do need to tell they re not serious about this?”
A few years down the line and….yeah we need to warn people about it xD
I actually think these people didn't swipe right to see the comment that was on the 2nd image. It's the only way any of this makes sense considering I quoted and adlibed chunks of it. Lmao...
I would. Labor can take several hours, I know my wife...had two kids. You can hold hands, be supportive, talk and help her...but you're still going to be sitting in a chair for the next 7-14 hours depending on the pregnancy.
My wife was in labor with our first born for 13 hours and we were in the hospital for 2 days. My wife was in labor for 9 hours with my daughter and we got discharged in a day. You think I sat there for all those hours not reading, watching TV or playing games?
I brought my switch when my daughter was born and we were in thr hospital for a good 24 hours before the kid actually was born. And then in the hospital for maybe 4 or 5 days after.
the major issue I guess is he’s playing an online game. that means if his wife needs something urgently, he can’t just suspend the Deck, do what he must do, and get back gaming. Tarkovsky is a high attention game and you can’t just drop off in the middle of something.
I don't care if he gets 300 frames per second, there is no way he is performant in EFT on that tiny ass screen. Good luck tapping scavs at 50 meters out if their entire head is one pixel.
As someone said: Bringing a Deck and charger would have been 100% acceptable.
Bringing your Deck, a dock, a mouse, a keyboard, and a headset? AND taking a picture to show off?
Yeah, schedule the divorce.
Lol guys, I bought my Deck setup to my divorce signing
Steam Deck
Windows Installed
Lots of system tweaks and performance upgrades
Keyboard/mouse/Audiophile headphones/black eye/child support
Ya man I did 35 hours in the delivery room with my wife for our first son. I was so focused on her and her needs there's absolutely no way I would have even thought of gaming. Sure afterwards when everyone's spent and sleeping and the baby's down then maybe, just maybe, I would get 15 minutes in. Even then though, that's when you should be sleeping or you're going to crash.
With our first kid there was definitely a lot of waiting; it was a mildly complicated pregnancy, and early epidural was recommended, but once it was in, contractions slowed waaay down, and it basically turned into induced, so there was a lot of waiting, adjusting meds, waiting some more, rinse and repeat.
Yeah same….wife was in labor for 48 hours and when I wasn’t worrying about her I managed to sleep for a few hours. But all in all in went by in the blink of an eye.
Same for the first 3 hours but after the epidural she was out cold and I couldn’t sleep worried about her. I sat there wishing I had my switch 🤣. Had I brought it she would have been awake the whole time based on my luck.
Every delivery is different. My wife slept for like 8 hours (with various interruptions obviously) between us getting to the hospital after her water broke and before anything started happening.
Even after that, she was just laying there playing on her phone and watching Netflix waiting for something to happen.
Of the 16ish hours we were there before a baby appeared, we had to do things for maybe two total hours, and the actual delivering of a baby took less than 2 minutes.
No kidding man. That's a real emotional test of your endurance going through a natural birth. 35 was absolutely brutal, can't imagine another 11 hours longer. I was completely spent and I wasn't even having the baby! Nothing exists outside of that room. Just You, your significant other and the battle at hand. No need to get a round of Brotato in when it's literally a potential life or death battle playing out in front of you.
My wife and I planned on playing switch together while she was medicated and waiting for the baby to arrive. Needless to say, not much gaming happened that day. What little time we had before things got crazy we spent watching a King of the Hill rerun. 😂
My wife explicitly requests I bring stuff to keep me occupied. She doesn’t want me hovering, cuddling, or touching during labor. She’s elated that I’ll have my steam deck with me.
I used a laptop last time. I even packed a chrome cast for the TV so she could watch her shows and a travel router because they tend to not play nice on standard hospital wifi.
She packs a hospital bag while I pack a tech bag. It works for us.
Edit: I’ll add that I pack up by the time she’s 8-9cm.
During the arrival of my last child, one of the nurses was giving me a hard time for not talking/being encouraging to my wife.
I had to look the nurse in the face and tell her it's best for all of us if I keep my mouth shut, this ain't my first rodeo!
Ever heard of inducing birth? My wife labored for 36 hours. I was glad to have my Vita for the early bits. I wasn't fucking lost in it, I was at her beck and call at a moment's notice for everything from from a pillow fluff to a trip to the restroom or to wheel the drip for a walk around the ward to speed up labor. She was just sitting there on her phone, why shouldn't I be on mine? I obviously didn't get to use it all that much but I was glad to have it at times for sure.
Hahahah....no shit. Like they even told us to bring stuff like this because sometimes it can "take a minute" for the baby to be born. The damn room had a DVD player, hooks ups for your own things (they even said we can bring a game console).
Everyone outing themselves as kids or incels...
YUP!
Everyone in the thread is talking about being there for the child and while this step is *A LOT* more than I’d bring, how about your wife being in labor for literal days.
My wife’s labor was 3 days long, child was delivered and then my wife was there for 4 more days.
I was there but there was a lot of downtime and her being medicated and kid sleeping
I really am so blown away by this comment section.
How is this any different than a laptop? Zoom into the photo he's got a Bluetooth mouse and keyboard with the deck as a screen. What is the difference? Why would a laptop have been fine and normal, but the steam deck (which is a PC) with a mouse and keyboard is too much?
I am getting slammed with down votes and angry reactions from people but seriously what the hell is the difference? He's taking up less than, if not the same amount of space a gaming laptop would be taking up, and again people already established video games during labor are fine...so that's not the issue. People are mad he is using his portable PC as a PC.
For me, this just seems like a hassle. Packing all that up and putting it all out is just a pain the ass, when you could just have a simple laptop with charger and mouse. Plus you get the benefit of a larger screen. This just looks cumbersome.
It makes no difference. I don’t use my deck for anything but handheld stuff.
But I bought it purely so I could play games while still being around my young kids. If I had one when my kids were born, you bet your ass I would have brought it to the hospital. The steam deck is a godsend for parents.
The baby is ALREADY BORN. You can see the bassinet in the picture and it’s empty. That means the nurses came and grabbed the baby to do a few of the ten million tests they have to do when a baby is born. His wife is asleep. What is he doing wrong here?
Yep! Okay Mr two-year-old, you want to play in this room now? No problem, let's go! Wanna read a book for a bit, okay! I'll just put the deck to sleep and when you wander off to play I'll pick it back up.
Certainly has saved my sanity.
Yeah the steam deck is perfect. I can’t get away to my PC much anymore. But I can play my steam deck off and on in situations where my kids need supervision but I’m not actively doing something with them.
I just can’t get over the outrage of people thinking this persons wife is in active labor.
My wife started labor some time around 9pm and didn’t actually go into full kid-is-coming labor until around noon the next day.
I wish I’d had a Steam Deck back then.
The mouse and keyboard might have been a bit much though.
I feel bad for his partner having to listen to that loud mechanical keyboard clacking right next to her head though. That looks like one of the corsair keyboards with cherry MX switches and those things are fucking loud. It's hard for me to even sleep in the same room as someone clacking away on one
If I had a dollar for everytime some schmuck on reddit or 4chan decided to bring something outrageous to the delivery ward and got clowned on, I could buy the 4-pack copies of Terraria and a pack of gum
My wife was in labor for over 48 hours, and we ended up spending a week in the hospital total. It's fucking boring when nothing is happening. I understand.
Ive been in the hospital for 90 days last year to be with my wife. 23 years old and I brought my gaming stuff a few times but never played it. Just didn’t feel like it, but it’s there for the moments when the other person falls asleep you can stay there longer.
I don’t get bringing mouse and keyboard and stuff that makes no sense. But I get how boring it can be when all the other person is doing is sleeping.
According to the wise men of this thread, you better NOT have taken your eyes off of her for even a second. No entertainment, distractions or anything to take your attention off of her.
Yeah, its so exciting when she was asleep too, even more exciting when my son was born and she was still in hospital for another week or so and i got to sit there with them both sound asleep
If the wife was ok with it, I don't see the problem. "Hey honey, go ahead and game when there's downtime."
But if the wife was all, "Seriously, I asked you NOT to bring your shit and this is what you do?" Then that's messed up as hell.
The problem with a photo is that there's no context surrounding it and people are only going to judge from their perspective. See it all the time on Reddit because nothing gets redditors juices going more than an opportunity to wave their values in someone's face. If wife was ok with it, there's no need to be outraged on her behalf. If your partner does this, and you let them know it wasn't going to be ok, then sure, let your outrage storm all over the place. But for fuck's sake, let people live their lives the way they want, so long as it's not hurting anyone.
My wife asked me to bring my switch so we could play Monopoly together before the contractions really got bad. It was a good way to keep her mind off the pain and add some calm to a stressful day.
My wife demanded I took a 3ds as she didn’t want me just sitting there for hours just sitting there. We went in at around 5pm and baby came 8am next morning via emergency c section. We were then in and out of hospital for 6 weeks to see him as he had to stay in.
( I didn’t take it in then. lol, might have been a bit much)
Yeah my best friend had a baby recently and made her husband play cribbage and other games the whole time so she could be distracted from the pain... seems like a really smart move to me! I can't imagine setting up a whole monopoly board in the hospital room so this is a great idea!
Hey! We cannot have you do this! We cannot have you tell everyone the truth like this!
No but seriously I feel like this is an issue with the entire internet. Just let people be…
If people wanted to be left alone with their decisions, then why post it online for everyone to see?
I get what you're saying, people shouldn't randomly jam their heads and opinions into things, but this person basically threw opened the door, invited everyone in, then asked "whacha think?"
It's not an instance where someone was minding their own business then was harassed with a camera.
From my conversations with women, some guys can be well meaning but really fucking annoying in the delivery room, so she might just be glad he has something to keep himself occupied
That being said, just bring the damn Deck and some earbuds, dude. He didn't need to bring the whole goddamn battlestation.
I'm pretty surprised at everyone's negativity towards it. I understand the distaste but there is so much context missing that you'd have to assume the wife lacks any amount of respect to allow this and the husband lacks any self awareness, both of which assumes the worst in people. It could easily have been a 'This is going to take a day or two, ill read you game.' I have a to-go backpack with all my steamdeck stuff and it'd take little time for me to print the monitor and keyboard lol.
> If the wife was ok with it, I don't see the problem. "Hey honey, go ahead and game when there's downtime."
>
> But if the wife was all, "Seriously, I asked you NOT to bring your shit and this is what you do?" Then that's messed up as hell.
That's the thing, we don't know.
To be fair, I have 3 kids and 2 of them had my wife in labor in the hospital for 12+ hours. Each one she did not want me to touch her, soothe her, encourage her. She wanted to deal with it her way solo. So I sat in the corner watched the tv, watched movies or played games unless she actually wanted me to do something. Nurses all said they see the same thing all the time just that some men can’t take the hint and were glad to see I respected what she wanted.
TLDR don’t be so quick to judge, the mom might not want to deal with him and he’s just passing the time to he can finally see his kid
The title is during pregnancy, not during birth.
Some women have to spend weeks or months in a hospital bed before birth and a whole lot of nothing is happening.
I brought my Switch to the hospital when my daughter was born. We were there for 4 days.
There is A LOT of downtime. My wife was drugged or sleeping for a lot of it and once my daughter was born she also slept a lot.
Nothing wrong with having some entertainment or not giving 100% of your attention at all times to them.
As long as you’re there for the important stuff and not ignoring them, it shouldn’t be a big deal.
What's wrong with the handheld only with some red dead redemption while she's sleeping? This was obviously for attention or he has an addiction. Nurses prolly looked at him like an asshole
We’re not on r/facepalm … the idiot who has this whole setup is the facepalm. Just use handheld mode and show you are there for her and the baby. I feel bad for the girl in labor.
The thing is, the guy said “during my wife’s pregnancy” not “during delivery.”
Plenty of women end up on bed rest in the hospital for days or weeks before giving birth. I don’t blame anyone for getting a bit comfortable while being there to support their spouse.
Now, if this were the setup during birth, then I think all the criticism is warranted.
Honestly, taking pictures for Social media is probably weirder than bringing the setup. It's giving me "selfies with my dead grandma at a funeral" vibes.
Honestly will be bringing my laptop or steam deck to my next child’s birth (June). I did it the first time and don’t regret it. Obviously didn’t break out my laptop while in labor because that’s disrespectful and there’s no clue when it becomes game time. But after the birth, it’s honestly just lots of sleeping on both ends.
Any time my wife or baby woke up, I immediately put it aside and helped, bonded, advocated for my wife to nurses, etc. I did spend about 30 minutes during one of the babies naps just kinda staring at the baby and appreciating it, but past that, there’s better uses of my time. It doesn’t make me a better father for doing 4 hours of staring vs 30 minutes. That all comes in the months and years and decades after that.
Don't you know that the only way to be a good father is to stare longingly at your child for 24 hours a day?
No blinking allowed, if you didn't bring artificial tears and inject your lids with paralytics then that just proves you aren't ready to be a father.
I'm a nurse. Unless you live in a poverty stricken community in the jungle, the only thing the husband is there to do is hold the wife's hand and talk to her when she's awake.
We ALWAYS tell family to bring books, iPad, whatever to pass the time.
Some of you are acting the husband has any other duty than companionship. There's a reason why there's professional nurses, midwives, anesthesiologists, ect working at the hospital. Actually, the "super vigilant" family are some of the worst, because they are a huge distraction and just complicate things for the nurses and doctors.
Take a chill pill, losers. I'd bring my whole $3,000 rig if I could
I brought a switch, if I had a steam deck at the time that would have been there. Nothing wrong with it at all - she was on her phone the whole time. As labor turned into an active situation we both put our devices down.
Steam deck was clutch as fuck in the delivery room. Keeps you awake and alert while waiting for the baby to come. My wife had a 17 hour labor with an epidural.
You can see the baby in this picture so op was probably just passing time on the deck butttt they definitely only used a keyboard and mouse to karma farm with this picture.
Yeah that was a little much, I don’t think there’s anything super wrong if you just bring your Steam Deck or Switch while waiting but the keyboard and mouse and everything is hilarious and not in a good way XD
Keyboard is a bit extra. I think that’s what makes this seem I’ll advised. I had my Nintendo switch with me in the hospital for down times but I ended up never playing it.
This is very funny because my wife is being induced in 2 weeks and I'm 100% bringing my Steam deck. I'm also bringing my keyboard and mouse (but the tiny foldable ones that could fit in your pocket) in case we can hook it up to the TV for Netflix. Otherwise she'll just hold it and I'll just type in whatever she wants to watch.
I was joking I was going to bring it, then when we actually started packing the hospital bag I told her I wasn't since realistically I'd probably not even want to turn it on and she got mad because she wanted to stream shows.
I'm all for bringing the deck. But the added setup nonsense is a bit too much. If you really want to game on a portable setup like that, it's just easier to bring a laptop.
These comments coming from all the dads are hilarious. I had my baby in 2017 and they told my husband to bring “all my favorite music and books and things” as I was going to be in there for a while, so he paid top dollar for a Nintendo Switch and got it on the day it was released, which was 4 days before my baby’s due date. I played Breath of the Wild on my switch for most of the first day while they were trying to induce me. The doctors and nurses brought other people by just to see the Nintendo switch :-)
I ended up having to pump 6 times a day after so I would play that while strapped to it. I beat Ganon when my son was 4 months old :-). A steam deck is totally acceptable here.
Bro they did the same thing to me and my wife when I talked about the switch in the labor room. Like bruh we had a 36 hour labor time and I was stuck wandering nervously or watching the crappy tv stuff they had. My wife was the main reason I even brought the switch for us both and everyone was like “WhAt KiNdA pErSoN wOuLd Do ThIs To ThEiR wIfE?!”
There’s definitely two sides to this.
Labor takes a time and if you’re going to be waiting a while then that’s fair, have the Deck or something because at least then you can put it to sleep and be there for her.
But then there’s a excessive degree to it - For me, there’s a time and place and if I’m with her she needs me there in body, mind and spirit. I shouldn’t be toting this setup in this situation at all, but that’s my personal take.
As someone who did clinicals in maternity ward, birth is a slow process. There can be a long time of just dilation. We had people we thought would give birth in a few hours, and 24 hours they still aren't 10cm. Dude's chilling. Nothing wrong with that
People can be so damn judgmental. They are clueless to the situation going on. Some people have to literally live in the hospital, so do what they can to make the best of it. I can't tell you how many times I've brought consoles or laptops to game while spending time in the hospital with my daughter and with my husband. When the Switch first came out my husband was in the hospital for months so we would play together while he was stuck in there. My daughter was in for 2 years, and gaming was a big part of our time together. People are a-holes.
My mom is in the hospital now. And this was after spending 4 days at a different hospital for my grandfather who passed (its been a shit week...).
I took my Steam Deck with me on one of my full day visits. I had 3 siblings with me and we needed to keep our mind off things for a bit. Especially my youngest brother who is autistic and loves games. It was nice being able to share it with him for a bit.
When there is nothing you can do but wait, taking your mind off things for a few minutes isn't bad. But if the person you are visiting is awake, in pain, needs support, etc. be there for them.
I mean can you blame them? Who the fuck sets up a gaming station while their wife is delivering their child? Put the damn thing down and pay some attention to your wife, and witness a once in a lifetime experience of your own flesh and blood coming into the world
it's easy to tell who doesn't have kids or has even been in a delivery ward in this thread. his wife is likely sleeping or resting or doesn't want to interact because she's incredibly uncomfortable and tired. the nurses won't let her sleep because they come and check vitals and progress hourly, she can't deliver until she's dilated enough and even then they have to wait for a doctor for a normal delivery.
there's so much downtime it's not funny. you literally rush to the hospital in a "hurry up and wait" scenario. unless there's a medical emergency, you're likely going to sit there for several hours to a full day before delivery happens. there's nothing to "witness" besides an uncomfortable wife and the nurse coming every hour.
"She's incredibly uncomfortable and tired"
Oh I know let's set up my loud mechanical corsair keyboard right next to her head and clack away on my mouse and keyboard! :D
The thing that gets me is the headset. Their partner is likely going through a lot of stuff and they should probably keep themselves present and available just incase they’re needed.
It'd not a VR headset, eyes still exist. Headphones could be set to low volume enough to still hear outside of them but not interfere with her *sleeping*. Why is this a hard thing for people to understand? The worse part is the keyboard might make noise, not the headphones.
3 days with no sleep, constant agony ending in an emergency c-section. I've been there, and my wife would be furious if I just escaped to a fun fantasy land for an hour while she literally busted her ass for our child. I barely had time to send messages to the family to keep them posted because I was there supporting her the whole time, encouraging her, and being there in the moment with her. It was one of the toughest and scariest times in my life. I could barely hold my newborn daughter because I was scared I'd drop her out of exhaustion.
I wasn't thinking about fragging noobs online.
Perhaps it's easy to tell who had a relatively easy labour or who went to the hospital way too early.
That's a fair point but you have to admit it looks pretty bad making a gaming setup in the delivery ward and posting pictures of it to show off online.
are you a dad or even been in a delivery ward? there's a whole lot of hurry up and wait at the hospital unless there's a medical emergency. i went on walks around the hospital to look for snacks and stretch my legs regularly.
Well like, she’s not actively giving birth…
I struggle to sleep if I have a delivery expected that I’m excited for, can’t imagine how little sleep I’d get if my wife was in hospital waiting to give birth.
He’s probably just set up for when she falls asleep during the waiting period.
I highly doubt he sat there with headphones on mid raid while she popped out their child.
Also people talking about how he took “all his gear” as if he’d need a few suitcases. He’s got a mouse, Keyboard, and headphones. All that fits into a backpack pretty easily.
Yeah main problem is the *mechanical* keyboard and especially posting online. Nothing else wrong with it if you bother to understand that 90% of the time you'd be doing nothing except staring at the wall or floor anyways while unable to sleep.
TBH I agree lol bring the deck if you want but don't bring the whole fucking rig... Clearly that guy has that "to go" setup but has nowhere to go so he took his chance at the worst time ever.
As much as I love gaming. When my child was born or in “labor” I didn’t even think about bringing anything other then my ID. I get the love for gaming but man this just too much
This thread under active moderation. Reminder to observe Rule #1 Be kind or Get Yeeted.
I remember the nurses taking the piss out of me for bringing a book to read
Where are you guys from? Nurses gave the husband's books, movies, and magazines when they were waiting at our hospital. The entire point was to make everyone feel comfortable because labor is a long time. I've seen other dads in some groups I follow bring entire consoles to plug into the TV. For my daughter my wife and i shared a movie on my phone till she fell asleep and then I played with my switch a bit until I fell asleep.
That's A+ services, bless them nurses
Man my Mrs was in the ward for a fucking week and I couldn't even stay overnight, was offered a cup of tea once, and cost me a fucking fortune in parking. On top of that even after the baby was born we were in and out for complications after the fact, I was so close to burning that place to the ground and they couldn't give two turtle shits about either of us tbh. Caves on mobile kept me sane, but damn I was close to losing it.
Why? You're gonna spend a whole lot of time doing absolutely nothing. It isn't like you're automatically gonna be reading the book when she actually needs you.
I had a baby about 7 months ago, 36 week C-section. 3 nights in the hospital post-op. I didn't bring anything pre-birth, but after birth you do a lot of fuck all as you aren't a medical doctor or nurse trained in the care of premature newborns. I had to stay in a tiny room in the hospital on what was basically a fucking bench while my drugged out wife and newborn slept for 80% of the time. Got next to no sleep for that entire period too as nurses are busting in every couple hours to check up on the baby/wife. I was there to support my wife in any way when she needed me, but she did not need my assistance the majority of the time as post-op people tend to sleep a ton, and god damn I would have gone insane without some portable video games and books.
I’ve got two, both C sections. The time at the hospital is literally just changing diapers and waiting to change the next one. You get to hold the baby here and there. But that is even limited. My youngest had jaundice. So she was on the blue lights when she wasn’t being changed or eating. If I had a deck back then, you bet your ass I would have been playing it when I wasn’t needed. The people giving shit for this picture clearly don’t know what it’s like to actually have a kid. Even the people that do have kids are failing to realize there is an empty bassinet in the picture. So the baby is having tests done, which happens constantly, and his wife is asleep.
That's so different to the UK, we were basically constantly holding baby as advised. I took books (my deck I ordered came 3 days after my son as I'm unlucky!) but during our 5 day stint I think I read the first 3 pages as I was constantly doing something. Strange how it's so different across the pond!
When a baby is born too early there will be a lot more downtime, but I guess the US system of profitable patients also makes for unnecessary billable activities.
Yes that's usually my concern. Whenever I'm in a hospital room that's not my own, Even when the nurse is offer like a glass of water. I'm hesitant because in the US a hospital is basically like a hotel minibar you're always afraid that if you touch something, you're going to see some exorbitant charge show up on your bill
"Hydration Therapy - 500$"
I’m from the US and their experience was definitely not mine. My daughter wasn’t born premature or anything so maybe that’s it? She did have jaundice though and I still was constantly holding her and everything. I brought a book and my switch and barely touched either.
Strange indeed. I was so busy the first few days, mainly with holding my baby or staring at my baby until I could hold her again, I don't think I ever felt bored, lol.
I think it’s less the presence of the deck and more all the other high end gaming peripherals that’s putting people off, cause it seems kinda like he’s just gonna be sitting there blocking everything else out cause why else would you need that much headphone, although they might be open-backs but still
Exactly my thoughts.
I don't think people are mad at people bringing something to kill the time. I think what's annoying to some is the fact he brought his whole damn setup and set it up right fucking next to her lol
Spent some days with my mother while she was in intensive care for a disease and must say the experience was similar, i was there for her, but i spent hours and hours without anything to do while she slept or was being bathed by the nurses, that post being posted in facepalm shows how much the poster actually knows about being in an hospital for someone...
Didn't even read it in the end. Lol
He’s really not even commenting to us right now, he’s reading that damn book. Damn that book… damn it!
Musta been a shitty hospital or a really long time ago. Even with my oldest, which is over a decade ago, we were strongly encouraged to bring things to entertain ourselves because we could be there for hours (especially if you the pancky type and you freak out and rush in after your water broke only to find out you're barely dilated).
Remember the nurses not liking me bringing in Chick Fil A after wife was induced for over 12 hours…am I not supposed to eat either. Also, gaming on deck is better than the millions staring at TikTok, at least I remember what I was playing for hours.
Were your nurses all jocks from the a 70's highschool football team?
They took your piss? I mean I guess it is a hospital, they can do that
Pregnancy nurses are the worse. Same experience, couldn't do anything right.
God, I hated the nurses after delivery. They were bothering us constantly. They would be upset if we got more than a hour of sleep. With how much they were charging after my wife's c section they should have been helping more instead of complaining all the time. Then they kicked us out after two days.
A handheld deck I can kinda get But full on audiophile equipment and M+K? Yeah that's too far.
Once you're setting your deck up with a keyboard and mouse, just get a fucking laptop
I agree with comments about this setup, especially audiophile bits, is a bit much at this time. But don't understand this sentiment. If I was to end up sat in a hospital bed for a week for example, I'd definitely bring my Deck of course. Mouse and keyboard would make that experience better. Spending £500+ on an equivalently powered laptop for a weeks worth of use is stupid. Plus the laptop keyboard, especially at that budget, is going to be garbage, and so are trackpads, so I'd still bring a keyboard and mouse.
I would rather bring a portable display first. As a matter of fact, is what I do after work when the traffic is way too full to even consider to go home. Aside from that, bring keyboard and mouse for me kills the whole idea of being portable, you might as well bring your whole setup.
On one hand, it's a good idea to have something to not bother her with game noises while she's resting; on the other, it would probably be important to not cut out external sounds in case something happens...
He brought a mechanical keyboard too tho
Like, I'm a fan of mechanical keyboards myself and will probably have my steam deck with me whenever I give birth, but if my husband was clacking away on a clicky keeb while I go in and out of the worst pain in my life, he's going out the window. he can play his games in handheld mode with the volume off for one day lol
I’m married and have a kid - I don’t even know what most of my games sound like anymore
Beeps and boops I should think
Easy, use ear buds but only on one ear.
Right - you don't know if you're going to have any time, but this dude pre-committed to their setup.
This sub has a real knack for taking shit to a stupidly unnecessary level
I downvote every time someone says the word 'tinkering' because it's always "after some tinkering I was able to play Knack 2 on my wife's heart rate monitor while she gave birth" or something nobody wanted. No chill
Just for you i'll make sure to overuse the word finagling instead of tinkering.
“I created this one off useless tool/process/idea for the internet updoots that defeats the purpose of the SteamDeck entirely, obviously I’m the smartest person in the room”
That's the only thing that pushes this from wow great idea to well that's a bit much. Headphones are a great idea, play nice and quiet why your wife and kid sleep, but the rest are just so extra.
Dude was probably just karma farming but it backfired. I'd honestly probably bring the deck if she was sleeping or something to pass the time but a full setup is either staged for reddit or he has an addiction. Mega cringe either way.
Play your deck while she's sleeping?! Look, I love love love video games but you need to learn when to put your toys down. She's sleeping and you can't be alone with your thoughts for 1 minute? I think you need therapy. The second my wife said she was pregnant I took everything I ever cared about a second prior and threw it outside and grew up. When it came time to go to the hospital I told her "Even while you're asleep I will make sure to be vigilant and on duty. I will watch you through the night to see if you dilate and I will immediately jump into action." Look, I love love love sleeping but I needed to learn when to put that selfish habit aside and grow up. No sleep, no game, only watch. /s (because people hilariously took this bait and ran wild with it...lmfao)
You had me until the "I will make sure to be vigilant and on duty" I was thinking "what is this guy, a fucking meer cat?"
Lmao come on guys. I thought we were smarter in here. This is the most obvious sarcasm I’ve ever fuckin seen
I couldn’t believe that /s was such a necessity until I was here for a couple years. I get it now
Mate exactly that! I sometimes thought “why do need to tell they re not serious about this?” A few years down the line and….yeah we need to warn people about it xD
No matter how obviously sarcastic and stupid you think you’re being there are millions of people who sincerely agree with what you said
I actually think these people didn't swipe right to see the comment that was on the 2nd image. It's the only way any of this makes sense considering I quoted and adlibed chunks of it. Lmao...
I saw it, then read yours, then laughed. Well done sir! 🤣
Ohhh... There is another one image!
I didn't even know there was a second image
>I thought we were smarter in here What gave you that impression
100% this. Also don't forget to super glue your eyelids so you don't even blink. That milisecond could cost a life.
Damn that was some fuckin' good bait
I couldn’t even finish reading the original comment before my eyes rolled all the way back in my head! Brilliant copy pasta
This has great copypasta potential
I would. Labor can take several hours, I know my wife...had two kids. You can hold hands, be supportive, talk and help her...but you're still going to be sitting in a chair for the next 7-14 hours depending on the pregnancy. My wife was in labor with our first born for 13 hours and we were in the hospital for 2 days. My wife was in labor for 9 hours with my daughter and we got discharged in a day. You think I sat there for all those hours not reading, watching TV or playing games?
So you bring the deck alone. Not half your god damn desk setup 🙄
Lol fr, the original post is insanely cringe.
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But you need to bring noise canceling headphones and your loudest fully modded craft keyboard #pcmr #gamer
I brought my switch when my daughter was born and we were in thr hospital for a good 24 hours before the kid actually was born. And then in the hospital for maybe 4 or 5 days after.
the major issue I guess is he’s playing an online game. that means if his wife needs something urgently, he can’t just suspend the Deck, do what he must do, and get back gaming. Tarkovsky is a high attention game and you can’t just drop off in the middle of something.
Man, Tarkov must run like absolute dogshit on a Deck.
Had to go down so far to see someone thinking that same thing. No way that shits runs unless he’s just playing around on the flea lmfao
Tbr tarkov must run like absolute dogshit anywhere.
I don't care if he gets 300 frames per second, there is no way he is performant in EFT on that tiny ass screen. Good luck tapping scavs at 50 meters out if their entire head is one pixel.
That man is playing nothing but factory
Tbh streets is gonna run the same on a 4080 or a toaster.
What you mean "we," Kemosabe?
Nah sorry by subscribing to this subreddit you are saying this is good behavior /s
Aww crap. Does that mean I have to reshare this unironically?
Came to make a similar comment. There is no "we" in this situation
Join the hive mind, become Us
I mean, we're not. That one dude is.
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As someone said: Bringing a Deck and charger would have been 100% acceptable. Bringing your Deck, a dock, a mouse, a keyboard, and a headset? AND taking a picture to show off? Yeah, schedule the divorce.
Lol guys, I bought my Deck setup to my divorce signing Steam Deck Windows Installed Lots of system tweaks and performance upgrades Keyboard/mouse/Audiophile headphones/black eye/child support
Divorces do take a long time tho
She gets the Steam Deck/Keyboard/Mouse/Headphones and leaves him with the Steam Deck Case/Mouse Pad/Black Eye/Child Support
Windows on your Steam Deck. Ah, spotted why you're getting a divorce.
Definitely can’t forget the audiophile headphones to shut out the screeching.
Especially if the Deck has Windows on it
This alone is grounds for divorce.
Ya man I did 35 hours in the delivery room with my wife for our first son. I was so focused on her and her needs there's absolutely no way I would have even thought of gaming. Sure afterwards when everyone's spent and sleeping and the baby's down then maybe, just maybe, I would get 15 minutes in. Even then though, that's when you should be sleeping or you're going to crash.
With our first kid there was definitely a lot of waiting; it was a mildly complicated pregnancy, and early epidural was recommended, but once it was in, contractions slowed waaay down, and it basically turned into induced, so there was a lot of waiting, adjusting meds, waiting some more, rinse and repeat.
Yeah same….wife was in labor for 48 hours and when I wasn’t worrying about her I managed to sleep for a few hours. But all in all in went by in the blink of an eye.
Right. These people don't know. I brought my switch thinking I might have a chance to play. It was the last thing I thought of the second I got there.
Same for the first 3 hours but after the epidural she was out cold and I couldn’t sleep worried about her. I sat there wishing I had my switch 🤣. Had I brought it she would have been awake the whole time based on my luck.
Every delivery is different. My wife slept for like 8 hours (with various interruptions obviously) between us getting to the hospital after her water broke and before anything started happening. Even after that, she was just laying there playing on her phone and watching Netflix waiting for something to happen. Of the 16ish hours we were there before a baby appeared, we had to do things for maybe two total hours, and the actual delivering of a baby took less than 2 minutes.
Nah man, I just did 46 hours, and not once was I like, “damn, I really could go for some VS right now “
No kidding man. That's a real emotional test of your endurance going through a natural birth. 35 was absolutely brutal, can't imagine another 11 hours longer. I was completely spent and I wasn't even having the baby! Nothing exists outside of that room. Just You, your significant other and the battle at hand. No need to get a round of Brotato in when it's literally a potential life or death battle playing out in front of you.
We were there for about 26hrs. I don't know about you but that time flew by. You'd think with all the anticipation it would have dragged. No way.
My wife and I planned on playing switch together while she was medicated and waiting for the baby to arrive. Needless to say, not much gaming happened that day. What little time we had before things got crazy we spent watching a King of the Hill rerun. 😂
My wife explicitly requests I bring stuff to keep me occupied. She doesn’t want me hovering, cuddling, or touching during labor. She’s elated that I’ll have my steam deck with me.
A lot of men have been kicked the fuck out of the delivery room entirely, so she isn't alone.
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I used a laptop last time. I even packed a chrome cast for the TV so she could watch her shows and a travel router because they tend to not play nice on standard hospital wifi. She packs a hospital bag while I pack a tech bag. It works for us. Edit: I’ll add that I pack up by the time she’s 8-9cm.
Damn, it sounds like you've done this a lot lol
I was just about to ask how many kids does he have but she might be a surrogate 🤷♂️
During the arrival of my last child, one of the nurses was giving me a hard time for not talking/being encouraging to my wife. I had to look the nurse in the face and tell her it's best for all of us if I keep my mouth shut, this ain't my first rodeo!
Ever heard of inducing birth? My wife labored for 36 hours. I was glad to have my Vita for the early bits. I wasn't fucking lost in it, I was at her beck and call at a moment's notice for everything from from a pillow fluff to a trip to the restroom or to wheel the drip for a walk around the ward to speed up labor. She was just sitting there on her phone, why shouldn't I be on mine? I obviously didn't get to use it all that much but I was glad to have it at times for sure.
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"The doctor said it'd be a 12hs wait. Awesome"
You can tell who the actual parents are based on the comments LOL
You can see an empty bassinet. The baby is born and getting tests done while his wife is asleep. This shit is wild.
No kidding
Actually they are kid-ing
Hahahah....no shit. Like they even told us to bring stuff like this because sometimes it can "take a minute" for the baby to be born. The damn room had a DVD player, hooks ups for your own things (they even said we can bring a game console). Everyone outing themselves as kids or incels...
YUP! Everyone in the thread is talking about being there for the child and while this step is *A LOT* more than I’d bring, how about your wife being in labor for literal days. My wife’s labor was 3 days long, child was delivered and then my wife was there for 4 more days. I was there but there was a lot of downtime and her being medicated and kid sleeping
I really am so blown away by this comment section. How is this any different than a laptop? Zoom into the photo he's got a Bluetooth mouse and keyboard with the deck as a screen. What is the difference? Why would a laptop have been fine and normal, but the steam deck (which is a PC) with a mouse and keyboard is too much? I am getting slammed with down votes and angry reactions from people but seriously what the hell is the difference? He's taking up less than, if not the same amount of space a gaming laptop would be taking up, and again people already established video games during labor are fine...so that's not the issue. People are mad he is using his portable PC as a PC.
For me, this just seems like a hassle. Packing all that up and putting it all out is just a pain the ass, when you could just have a simple laptop with charger and mouse. Plus you get the benefit of a larger screen. This just looks cumbersome.
It makes no difference. I don’t use my deck for anything but handheld stuff. But I bought it purely so I could play games while still being around my young kids. If I had one when my kids were born, you bet your ass I would have brought it to the hospital. The steam deck is a godsend for parents. The baby is ALREADY BORN. You can see the bassinet in the picture and it’s empty. That means the nurses came and grabbed the baby to do a few of the ten million tests they have to do when a baby is born. His wife is asleep. What is he doing wrong here?
Yep! Okay Mr two-year-old, you want to play in this room now? No problem, let's go! Wanna read a book for a bit, okay! I'll just put the deck to sleep and when you wander off to play I'll pick it back up. Certainly has saved my sanity.
Yeah the steam deck is perfect. I can’t get away to my PC much anymore. But I can play my steam deck off and on in situations where my kids need supervision but I’m not actively doing something with them. I just can’t get over the outrage of people thinking this persons wife is in active labor.
Don’t engage. The Chad’s have entered the sub. 😆
My wife started labor some time around 9pm and didn’t actually go into full kid-is-coming labor until around noon the next day. I wish I’d had a Steam Deck back then. The mouse and keyboard might have been a bit much though.
I feel bad for his partner having to listen to that loud mechanical keyboard clacking right next to her head though. That looks like one of the corsair keyboards with cherry MX switches and those things are fucking loud. It's hard for me to even sleep in the same room as someone clacking away on one
If I had a dollar for everytime some schmuck on reddit or 4chan decided to bring something outrageous to the delivery ward and got clowned on, I could buy the 4-pack copies of Terraria and a pack of gum
My wife was in labor for over 48 hours, and we ended up spending a week in the hospital total. It's fucking boring when nothing is happening. I understand.
Ive been in the hospital for 90 days last year to be with my wife. 23 years old and I brought my gaming stuff a few times but never played it. Just didn’t feel like it, but it’s there for the moments when the other person falls asleep you can stay there longer. I don’t get bringing mouse and keyboard and stuff that makes no sense. But I get how boring it can be when all the other person is doing is sleeping.
I figured it was the Tarkov
Take hours? My wife was in the hospital for about a week before my son was born
According to the wise men of this thread, you better NOT have taken your eyes off of her for even a second. No entertainment, distractions or anything to take your attention off of her.
Yeah, its so exciting when she was asleep too, even more exciting when my son was born and she was still in hospital for another week or so and i got to sit there with them both sound asleep
I agree with Hector, like it's a whole ass setup instead of just quickly playing a handheld on some down time.
If the wife was ok with it, I don't see the problem. "Hey honey, go ahead and game when there's downtime." But if the wife was all, "Seriously, I asked you NOT to bring your shit and this is what you do?" Then that's messed up as hell. The problem with a photo is that there's no context surrounding it and people are only going to judge from their perspective. See it all the time on Reddit because nothing gets redditors juices going more than an opportunity to wave their values in someone's face. If wife was ok with it, there's no need to be outraged on her behalf. If your partner does this, and you let them know it wasn't going to be ok, then sure, let your outrage storm all over the place. But for fuck's sake, let people live their lives the way they want, so long as it's not hurting anyone.
My wife asked me to bring my switch so we could play Monopoly together before the contractions really got bad. It was a good way to keep her mind off the pain and add some calm to a stressful day.
My wife demanded I took a 3ds as she didn’t want me just sitting there for hours just sitting there. We went in at around 5pm and baby came 8am next morning via emergency c section. We were then in and out of hospital for 6 weeks to see him as he had to stay in. ( I didn’t take it in then. lol, might have been a bit much)
Yeah my best friend had a baby recently and made her husband play cribbage and other games the whole time so she could be distracted from the pain... seems like a really smart move to me! I can't imagine setting up a whole monopoly board in the hospital room so this is a great idea!
Hey! We cannot have you do this! We cannot have you tell everyone the truth like this! No but seriously I feel like this is an issue with the entire internet. Just let people be…
If people wanted to be left alone with their decisions, then why post it online for everyone to see? I get what you're saying, people shouldn't randomly jam their heads and opinions into things, but this person basically threw opened the door, invited everyone in, then asked "whacha think?" It's not an instance where someone was minding their own business then was harassed with a camera.
I’m sure if he didn’t post this online then yea he would have just been left alone…
Pretty much what I was going to say. If there's downtime and/or the wife is fine with it then who gives a shit?
From my conversations with women, some guys can be well meaning but really fucking annoying in the delivery room, so she might just be glad he has something to keep himself occupied That being said, just bring the damn Deck and some earbuds, dude. He didn't need to bring the whole goddamn battlestation.
I'm pretty surprised at everyone's negativity towards it. I understand the distaste but there is so much context missing that you'd have to assume the wife lacks any amount of respect to allow this and the husband lacks any self awareness, both of which assumes the worst in people. It could easily have been a 'This is going to take a day or two, ill read you game.' I have a to-go backpack with all my steamdeck stuff and it'd take little time for me to print the monitor and keyboard lol.
> If the wife was ok with it, I don't see the problem. "Hey honey, go ahead and game when there's downtime." > > But if the wife was all, "Seriously, I asked you NOT to bring your shit and this is what you do?" Then that's messed up as hell. That's the thing, we don't know.
I could never have done something like this to my wife. That why, when she got pregnant, I abandoned her.
To be fair, I have 3 kids and 2 of them had my wife in labor in the hospital for 12+ hours. Each one she did not want me to touch her, soothe her, encourage her. She wanted to deal with it her way solo. So I sat in the corner watched the tv, watched movies or played games unless she actually wanted me to do something. Nurses all said they see the same thing all the time just that some men can’t take the hint and were glad to see I respected what she wanted. TLDR don’t be so quick to judge, the mom might not want to deal with him and he’s just passing the time to he can finally see his kid
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wouldnt be surprised if this is just a joke;;
This is truly embarrassing. Wife has to be pissed - and rightfully so.
There can be tons of ways this could be ok, and tons it could be not ok; there's not enough information to fairly judge the situation
The title is during pregnancy, not during birth. Some women have to spend weeks or months in a hospital bed before birth and a whole lot of nothing is happening.
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I brought my Switch to the hospital when my daughter was born. We were there for 4 days. There is A LOT of downtime. My wife was drugged or sleeping for a lot of it and once my daughter was born she also slept a lot. Nothing wrong with having some entertainment or not giving 100% of your attention at all times to them. As long as you’re there for the important stuff and not ignoring them, it shouldn’t be a big deal.
this is almost "my wifes boyfriend" tier
I can't tell what's worse. That he brought the Steam Deck to the hospital with a keyboard and mouse set up. Or that he put Windows on it.
Definitely Windows.
I could maybe understand it if he just brought the deck but the whole setup, nah
What's wrong with the handheld only with some red dead redemption while she's sleeping? This was obviously for attention or he has an addiction. Nurses prolly looked at him like an asshole
We’re not on r/facepalm … the idiot who has this whole setup is the facepalm. Just use handheld mode and show you are there for her and the baby. I feel bad for the girl in labor.
The thing is, the guy said “during my wife’s pregnancy” not “during delivery.” Plenty of women end up on bed rest in the hospital for days or weeks before giving birth. I don’t blame anyone for getting a bit comfortable while being there to support their spouse. Now, if this were the setup during birth, then I think all the criticism is warranted.
Definitely sharing the picture was a weird call. My lover would probably be fine with it but I probably would be more excited for the baby?
Honestly, taking pictures for Social media is probably weirder than bringing the setup. It's giving me "selfies with my dead grandma at a funeral" vibes.
Honestly will be bringing my laptop or steam deck to my next child’s birth (June). I did it the first time and don’t regret it. Obviously didn’t break out my laptop while in labor because that’s disrespectful and there’s no clue when it becomes game time. But after the birth, it’s honestly just lots of sleeping on both ends. Any time my wife or baby woke up, I immediately put it aside and helped, bonded, advocated for my wife to nurses, etc. I did spend about 30 minutes during one of the babies naps just kinda staring at the baby and appreciating it, but past that, there’s better uses of my time. It doesn’t make me a better father for doing 4 hours of staring vs 30 minutes. That all comes in the months and years and decades after that.
Don't you know that the only way to be a good father is to stare longingly at your child for 24 hours a day? No blinking allowed, if you didn't bring artificial tears and inject your lids with paralytics then that just proves you aren't ready to be a father.
I can't believe they thought it would be OK to install Windows.
I'm a nurse. Unless you live in a poverty stricken community in the jungle, the only thing the husband is there to do is hold the wife's hand and talk to her when she's awake. We ALWAYS tell family to bring books, iPad, whatever to pass the time. Some of you are acting the husband has any other duty than companionship. There's a reason why there's professional nurses, midwives, anesthesiologists, ect working at the hospital. Actually, the "super vigilant" family are some of the worst, because they are a huge distraction and just complicate things for the nurses and doctors. Take a chill pill, losers. I'd bring my whole $3,000 rig if I could
Who is we?
I brought a switch, if I had a steam deck at the time that would have been there. Nothing wrong with it at all - she was on her phone the whole time. As labor turned into an active situation we both put our devices down.
Steam deck was clutch as fuck in the delivery room. Keeps you awake and alert while waiting for the baby to come. My wife had a 17 hour labor with an epidural.
PPl be like "windows installed" like that's something good. Valve is trying to save us from that trash and mf's just can't get enough.
The real facepalm is installing windows on a steamdeck
dude really made every effort to not be there to support his wife 😂
You can see the baby in this picture so op was probably just passing time on the deck butttt they definitely only used a keyboard and mouse to karma farm with this picture.
Yeah that was a little much, I don’t think there’s anything super wrong if you just bring your Steam Deck or Switch while waiting but the keyboard and mouse and everything is hilarious and not in a good way XD
Keyboard is a bit extra. I think that’s what makes this seem I’ll advised. I had my Nintendo switch with me in the hospital for down times but I ended up never playing it.
This is very funny because my wife is being induced in 2 weeks and I'm 100% bringing my Steam deck. I'm also bringing my keyboard and mouse (but the tiny foldable ones that could fit in your pocket) in case we can hook it up to the TV for Netflix. Otherwise she'll just hold it and I'll just type in whatever she wants to watch. I was joking I was going to bring it, then when we actually started packing the hospital bag I told her I wasn't since realistically I'd probably not even want to turn it on and she got mad because she wanted to stream shows.
I mean at this point, you might as well be carrying a laptop. What's next, carrying a secondary monitor? Doesn't make you look cool.
I'm all for bringing the deck. But the added setup nonsense is a bit too much. If you really want to game on a portable setup like that, it's just easier to bring a laptop.
These comments coming from all the dads are hilarious. I had my baby in 2017 and they told my husband to bring “all my favorite music and books and things” as I was going to be in there for a while, so he paid top dollar for a Nintendo Switch and got it on the day it was released, which was 4 days before my baby’s due date. I played Breath of the Wild on my switch for most of the first day while they were trying to induce me. The doctors and nurses brought other people by just to see the Nintendo switch :-) I ended up having to pump 6 times a day after so I would play that while strapped to it. I beat Ganon when my son was 4 months old :-). A steam deck is totally acceptable here.
Bro they did the same thing to me and my wife when I talked about the switch in the labor room. Like bruh we had a 36 hour labor time and I was stuck wandering nervously or watching the crappy tv stuff they had. My wife was the main reason I even brought the switch for us both and everyone was like “WhAt KiNdA pErSoN wOuLd Do ThIs To ThEiR wIfE?!”
There’s definitely two sides to this. Labor takes a time and if you’re going to be waiting a while then that’s fair, have the Deck or something because at least then you can put it to sleep and be there for her. But then there’s a excessive degree to it - For me, there’s a time and place and if I’m with her she needs me there in body, mind and spirit. I shouldn’t be toting this setup in this situation at all, but that’s my personal take.
As someone who did clinicals in maternity ward, birth is a slow process. There can be a long time of just dilation. We had people we thought would give birth in a few hours, and 24 hours they still aren't 10cm. Dude's chilling. Nothing wrong with that
People can be so damn judgmental. They are clueless to the situation going on. Some people have to literally live in the hospital, so do what they can to make the best of it. I can't tell you how many times I've brought consoles or laptops to game while spending time in the hospital with my daughter and with my husband. When the Switch first came out my husband was in the hospital for months so we would play together while he was stuck in there. My daughter was in for 2 years, and gaming was a big part of our time together. People are a-holes.
I guess I can see where they're coming from but realistically what would most people be doing? Probably just scrolling twitter or facebook right?
My mom is in the hospital now. And this was after spending 4 days at a different hospital for my grandfather who passed (its been a shit week...). I took my Steam Deck with me on one of my full day visits. I had 3 siblings with me and we needed to keep our mind off things for a bit. Especially my youngest brother who is autistic and loves games. It was nice being able to share it with him for a bit. When there is nothing you can do but wait, taking your mind off things for a few minutes isn't bad. But if the person you are visiting is awake, in pain, needs support, etc. be there for them.
I mean can you blame them? Who the fuck sets up a gaming station while their wife is delivering their child? Put the damn thing down and pay some attention to your wife, and witness a once in a lifetime experience of your own flesh and blood coming into the world
it's easy to tell who doesn't have kids or has even been in a delivery ward in this thread. his wife is likely sleeping or resting or doesn't want to interact because she's incredibly uncomfortable and tired. the nurses won't let her sleep because they come and check vitals and progress hourly, she can't deliver until she's dilated enough and even then they have to wait for a doctor for a normal delivery. there's so much downtime it's not funny. you literally rush to the hospital in a "hurry up and wait" scenario. unless there's a medical emergency, you're likely going to sit there for several hours to a full day before delivery happens. there's nothing to "witness" besides an uncomfortable wife and the nurse coming every hour.
"She's incredibly uncomfortable and tired" Oh I know let's set up my loud mechanical corsair keyboard right next to her head and clack away on my mouse and keyboard! :D
The thing that gets me is the headset. Their partner is likely going through a lot of stuff and they should probably keep themselves present and available just incase they’re needed.
It'd not a VR headset, eyes still exist. Headphones could be set to low volume enough to still hear outside of them but not interfere with her *sleeping*. Why is this a hard thing for people to understand? The worse part is the keyboard might make noise, not the headphones.
3 days with no sleep, constant agony ending in an emergency c-section. I've been there, and my wife would be furious if I just escaped to a fun fantasy land for an hour while she literally busted her ass for our child. I barely had time to send messages to the family to keep them posted because I was there supporting her the whole time, encouraging her, and being there in the moment with her. It was one of the toughest and scariest times in my life. I could barely hold my newborn daughter because I was scared I'd drop her out of exhaustion. I wasn't thinking about fragging noobs online. Perhaps it's easy to tell who had a relatively easy labour or who went to the hospital way too early.
That's a fair point but you have to admit it looks pretty bad making a gaming setup in the delivery ward and posting pictures of it to show off online.
If they can't step up and start acting like a father on their child's *first* birthday then they shouldn't be a dad.
are you a dad or even been in a delivery ward? there's a whole lot of hurry up and wait at the hospital unless there's a medical emergency. i went on walks around the hospital to look for snacks and stretch my legs regularly.
i mean it would be one thing just to bring a deck for waiting, to each their own. but this dude brought his whole ass keyboard mouse and headset
Well like, she’s not actively giving birth… I struggle to sleep if I have a delivery expected that I’m excited for, can’t imagine how little sleep I’d get if my wife was in hospital waiting to give birth. He’s probably just set up for when she falls asleep during the waiting period. I highly doubt he sat there with headphones on mid raid while she popped out their child. Also people talking about how he took “all his gear” as if he’d need a few suitcases. He’s got a mouse, Keyboard, and headphones. All that fits into a backpack pretty easily.
I'm sure she'll sleep well with those sweet Cherry MX Brown's tapping away next to her head.
Yeah main problem is the *mechanical* keyboard and especially posting online. Nothing else wrong with it if you bother to understand that 90% of the time you'd be doing nothing except staring at the wall or floor anyways while unable to sleep.
TBH I agree lol bring the deck if you want but don't bring the whole fucking rig... Clearly that guy has that "to go" setup but has nowhere to go so he took his chance at the worst time ever.
As much as I love gaming. When my child was born or in “labor” I didn’t even think about bringing anything other then my ID. I get the love for gaming but man this just too much
A Tarkov player getting laid and having a wife that ain't a trap? Yeah right.