I'm a dad of a 11 month old baby. I love being a dad, and I love spending time with my son. Doing so has necessitated that I spend less time with my favorite hobby. You guessed it -- video games! I used to spend nearly all of my free time playing World of Warcraft and the rest of my time playing AAA console/PC releases. I completely quit WOW about a month after my son was born, and I haven't had a whole lot of other time to play other games. There are so many good games coming out that I'd love to play, but I know that I won't be able to play them for a while! Right now, I still need to catch up on all of the good games that I neglected when I was really into WOW, such as Zelda: Phantom Hourglass.

You played WOW and still somehow got laid? You rebel you.

Let me guess, you were a warrior and she was a paladin and together you were going to conquer the world.

Congrats on the baby.

Haha, thanks guys. Actually, she was a mage, and I was a shadow priest! Although I'd love to play an deep, epic game like Elder Scrolls V, I don't really have that much time to invest. I'm looking to play handheld games, and I was thinking about picking up a copy of Kirby: Mass Attack. Any other suggestions?

You mentioned you wanted to play Phantom Hourglass - such an underrated game! Now I gotta go play it for like, the fourth time :) Word to the wise, though: skip Spirit Tracks. Not nearly as much fun.

Congrats, BTW, on the baby. You're gonna have such a great time introducing him to game culture as he grows up!

When your child is old enough get them into WOW, that way you can give yourself an excuse to get into it again.

With a new born child I suggest you focus on nice short experiences. Short games that are still satisfying and interesting. A few suggestions for PS3/360: 
 
1.Vanquish: 4 hours long. It's a really fun third person shooter with a great sense of speed and style. The game is by platinum games of Bayonetta and Madworld fame, so you know this game is crazy. 
 
2. Limbo: 2-3 hours long. An atmospheric game about a young boy's adventure. 
 
3. Pacman championship edition DX: 5min to infinity. This game is as long as you want it to be.You can pop it in any time and just try to beat your high score. The music and visuals are great as well.  
 
4. Flower. It's a psn exclusive but this game is a Godsend after a stressful day where you can just float around and play with the sixaxis.
  
I can't think of more games now but your best hope is downloadable games. They are affordable(i'm guessing you need the money for the baby)  and really fun. 
 
Also may I suggest this website. http://howlongtobeat.com/index.php You can search for any game and you'll get an average length for any game you wish to play. This can help in your decision making. 
Congratulations on the baby and good luck, raising a child is tough but rewarding.

Other parents force their kids to have good grades, go to school, play sports. "Gamer parents" force their kids to play...games. Let the rage commence!

Congratulations on the kid duder.

I will never have one because of those reasons you posted :D

Tryout the Dishwasher games too, they're arcade games that aren't too long but they're really fun.

http://www.giantbomb.com/the-dishwasher/62-2107/

Congrats!
I'm not a dad, but isn't it possible to share "duty"? Maybe have alternating days of who's job it is? That should give you maybe two days a week with a few hours, right? Pretty sure she would be happy about that, too.
I wouldn't try to start playing completely different games now, there were probably reasons why you played the type you did.

playing wow isnt gaming

@Super_Yosh_64 said:

playing wow isnt gaming

IT'S AN ADDICTION.

Id suggest games that you can pick up and play for 10 minutes at a time... try arcade games such as bastion and the like.

playing wow isnt gaming

Congrats dad, I have a 3.5-month-old daughter myself and I find that a majority of my game playing happens during nap-time or bed-time. Actually because I've cut down to 3 days of work per week, I've managed to catch up on a lot of the games I bought but never completed like Vanquish and more recently Shadows of the Damned. I'm currently cranking my way through Arkham City and I think I'm at around 50% completion.

As far as games to play to play in shorter bursts, I find anything that's story driven or turn-based to be the way to go. You can always throw it on standby. Here are my favorites from recent memory:

DS

• Ace Attorney series, 5 games in all. Amazing, engrossing stories that are great to play in bed before you go to sleep
• Ghost Trick, from the makers of the Ace Attorney games, a more interactive experience while retaining all of the charm
• Advance WarsDS and Days of Ruin, amazing games with hundreds of hours of content
• Final Fantasy Tactics A2, it's had its share of criticism, but it's still one of the 10 best strategy RPGs of all time IMO
• Fire Emblem, the classic strategy RPG
• Rhythm Heaven, if you have 2 minutes of uninterrupted time, you can get something done in this game

PSP

• Final Fantasy Tactics, best strategy RPG of all time ever
• Tactics Ogre, you can see where a lot of the ideas that made FFT so great came from
• Valkyria Chronicles 2, it's a little bit sillier than the first one, but the gameplay improvements give this game tons of depth
• Patapon series, every stage is 5-10 minutes and the loot can make it strangely addicting

3DS

• Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars, the quicklook sold me on this game and the 3D is generally unoffensive

Kids ruin everything.  That's why every morning  I put a morning after pill in my gfs coffee. 

That's awesome dude congrats on the baby

@thsmith: Picross 3D. You can sit down for 5 minutes and do a puzzle, then go off and do dad things, and if there's an emergency, you can pause any time with no penalty. Also, I feel like this is the obvious one, but Pokemon.