The best part of being a stay at home parent is flexibility

Chris Adkins is a stay at home dad with a passion for board games.

What’s the best part of parenthood?

Seeing her learn new things, doing things with her.

Do you have activities you like to do together?

Yeah, she likes to play games. She’s really good at drawing so, play games around drawing.

How long have you lived in the area?

Not quite 25 years. I came to Tech in 98, and been here basically since.

Did you come to Tech as a student?

Yeah.

What did you study?

A lot of different things, but eventually I got a math degree.

What led you to math?

I didn’t like lab work. I tried a bunch of different degrees that all had labs and that was always the killer, was the lab work. The repetition of errors. Having to repeat things until it came out right, it’s frustrating, so I switched to math where there are no labs.

Did you do anything with your math degree?

I worked at ICASA for about a year, but she was born and at ICASA, it was by contract work and my wife had a more stable job. So we decided I’d stay home, and she’d keep working.

What’s the best part of being a stay at home parent?

Probably the flexibility. You don’t have to worry about scheduling for her, is somebody available. We don’t have to worry about finding daycare. It makes it easy for her to find stuff to do, keep her entertained, keep her educated.

What’s the worst part?

The lack of a break. It’s kind of a 24/7 job. I mean, it’s not terrible, but that is the challenge. It’s not a bad thing. It takes planning to have time off.

What kind of fun things do you like to do in Socorro?

I help out with the Board game club on campus. I help them with that. That’s the main one, it sucks up a lot of my time.

What does a board gaming club do?

We meet on Friday nights and play board games. Some years we even buy new board games, just try to organize things on campus for people to get together and play games.

What kind of board games are the most popular?

Card games are pretty popular. People like a lot of different card games. Deck building games where you make, you buy cards and you play. In the game you buy the cards, not at a store, and you try to make your deck do something. Popular ones are Dominion and you try to make a city essentially. That’s a pretty popular one. Stuff like the classic ones. Ones where you’re buying property or trying to fight each other, take over lands—those are pretty popular.

It seems like board games are a good way to bring people together.

Yeah, yeah, been kind of a challenge with covid, because meeting people, getting large groups together. It’s a good way to get people together in small groups which is much more manageable.

Is the board gaming club pretty popular?

Before Covid we were really popular. We’re having a little trouble right now, but I think it’s because people are kind of hesitant to come out and do things. I think everyone kind of got into their, being alone activities or their small little bubble activities and coming out and doing things with a bunch of people, people aren’t really ready to do that yet. In general, yeah, it’s really popular. We meet at Fidel on Fridays and are just there all night.

What’s the most raucous board game?

There’s a few like werewolf or mafia that there’s a lot of, somebody’s a traitor and you’re trying to figure out who it is and there’s a lot of accusations and yelling and stuff like that. That’s when it can kind of get a little out of hand. It’s fun though.

What do you like most about living in Socorro?

For being a small town, it’s surprisingly multicultural. I think that’s mostly due to Tech and all the different students it draws in. I like being in a small town that isn’t cloistered, that isn’t closed off from the world, but you can still come and do things like this.

If there was anything you could change about Socorro, what would it be?

I wish it was a little easier to get to Albuquerque. I wish the Railrunner had made it down here, but that’s the only big thing I would probably change.