Milan Jovic/Getty Images Video gaming is a valued leisure activity in Australia. The latest data show 74% of Australian households own at least two gaming devices. In research contexts, parents are often framed as mediators of children’s gameplay, with a responsibility to supervise and use co-playing to build family cohesion. But what about parents who game independently of their children? What is known about how, what, when and why parents might game? The answer is, not much. In fact, our newly published study is, to our knowledge, the first to investigate the gaming experiences of parents in Australia.Parenting, pressure and leisureParenting involves significant emotional, mental and physical labour. When coupled with paid work and the ongoing demands of domestic life, it can be stressful and exhausting. In Australia, mothers are still primarily responsible for unpaid domestic labour in the home and, as our study found, also carry a higher parental load than fathers. In our pilot study, we surveyed 38 mothers who identify as gamers about their gaming practices and applied a stress recovery framework, commonly used to assess how lesiure activities provide relief from work-related stress based on psychological detachment from work, relaxation, mastery of new skills, and a sense of control over actions and outcomes.By looking at results across these four dimensions, we were able to explore the extent to which gaming supports parental wellbeing through stress reduction.Gaming for stress recoveryOverall, gaming improved wellbeing in the first three scales of the framework, while control was limited by parental responsibility, guilt and game design. Psychological detachment was often achieved through solo game play, which was the most preferred (65%) mode of play for mothers. Playing alone helped them disengage from caregiving roles, with 71% agreeing it improved their mental health.As one participant explained:I play a lot of games with my children and online, but most often I prefer to play alone to recharge my social battery.Relaxation came from a range of game genres, including action-adventure, role-playing and simulation games. Many mothers (80%) gamed on PCs or consoles, with popular titles including Pokemon, Minecraft, Mario Kart, Fallout 4 and Assassins Creed. Most (89%) said gaming helped them relax and 71% reported feeling less stressed after gaming. One participant told us: Gaming is my main relaxation and stress relief and the thing I enjoy above all other activities.Mastery and controlGaming also supports mastery of new skills. Mothers mentioned challenge and achievement as the main motivations for gameplay, with boss fights and world-building boosting competence, problem-solving and resilience.Contrary to stereotypes that suggest mothers gravitate towards feminised or “soft” games that replicate domestic labour, we found mothers prefer complex narratives and challenging experiences.As one participant said:I prefer games that are immersive and not linear […] where I can engage with different aspects, like storylines, side quests, building and exploration.Some mothers deliberately chose difficult games, finding satisfaction in being able to persist until they mastered them.The limits of gameplay for mumsStress recovery was more restrained in the “control” dimension. As expected, parental responsibilities shape gameplay practices, with time pressure and children’s presence limiting when, how and what mothers could play.As one participant noted: I only game when my son goes to sleep at night. I don’t game with him around as I focus on parenting. Gamer guilt was also a barrier. Mothers felt they had to justify their gaming alongside family obligations. Despite the benefits of gameplay, the realities of parenting continue to limit what and how mothers play. Natalia Lebedinskaia/Getty Images As one mother explained:I feel guilty playing games, there is always something more important that needs to be done, for example, time with child, time with spouse, organising social and family events, childcare and family finances, housework, actual paid work. We also found that restrictive game design elements gave mothers less control of their gaming. Long player sessions and uninterruptible play made some games incompatible with the realities of parenting.One participants told us:Games need to be pausable and savable at any point. When I was feeding babies, games also needed to be playable with just the mouse.Changing the narrativeOur findings show gaming is a legitimate and powerful stress recovery tool for mothers. It enables psychological detachment from the pressures of parental responsibility, provides respite and relaxation, and facilitates mastery over new challenges. However, gendered expectations about a mother’s role can result in gaming being perceived as a guilty pleasure rather than a valid form of self-care. At the same time, restrictive game design features can exclude mothers from accessing certain games and genres – further reducing opportunities for stress relief. To help mothers embrace gaming as a form of wellbeing support, we need to re-frame them as autonomous players, rather than just caregivers or co-players. Game developers could also help by designing games that allow for more interruption and control, which would make gaming more accessible to mothers.For gaming mums, play is more than just a luxury. It can also be a resource for recovery and relaxation.The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.