This Wired article has a run-down of new(ish) simulation games. Before I entered the intensive child rearing years, I was one of those people like the author that was into this type of game (and also sports games, which are a simulation of sorts), and not so much into arcade-type games. So it is somewhat comforting that there are other people like me.

I keep hearing that the intensive child-rearing years do eventually wind down, and that you remember them fondly as you start to enjoy having some time to enjoy your own grownup life again. For my wife and I, there are just some slight twinkles of light at the end of the tunnel. It’s been a long dark tunnel, particularly with Covid, although of course there have been many joyful moments along the way and over time we will probably remember those and forget the hard parts.

Also appealing to me is the idea of writing my own simulations of real things that I can play something like games. For example, the stock market? climate change? the ecology of my neighborhood? geopolitics? Can I link these things together into one simulation of the universe as it actually plays out, Asimov Foundation-style? Of course not. Many smarter people than me have tried and failed. But the fun could be in the trying. Now, if you will excuse me I need to attend to the (beautiful, healthy, wonderful in every way) whining children and mountains of dirty laundry and dishes and unpaid bills and things in my house that are broken.