Charlotte De Klerck booked her daughter’s sleepover more than a year before it happens.
The reason is GTA 6.
The 30-year-old from Taunton, Somerset, rang her own mum the day Rockstar confirmed the release date and locked in 24 hours of childcare.
She and her husband plan to spend every one of them in Los Santos.
A babysitter booked a year in advance
“As soon as Rockstar dropped the release date, I booked my mum to babysit,” Charlotte said, as reported by Creatorzine.
“I’ve been strategic and booked my daughter in for a 24 hour sleepover. She will be dropped off early on Friday morning to allow me time to smash through the story.”
GTA 6 launches worldwide on 19 November, the first new main entry since GTA 5 in 2013.
The series dates back to 1997 and ranks among the most successful in gaming. Millions of players have launch plans.
Few have outsourced a child for them.
The gamer mum who doesn’t really game
Charlotte is not what most people picture when they hear “gamer”. GTA is the only game she plays.
“I don’t really play games. I’m too busy and I don’t have enough time – before I had a baby I did,” she said.
“On GTA on the Xbox 360 I could easily spend 12 and 14 hours on a weekend or binge 48 hours and sleep sparsely whilst gaming.”
Her daughter’s childhood looks rather different. “My daughter was actually raised screen free for the first 18 months. She’s banned from iPads and she’s banned from phones.”
The little girl has no interest in gaming, so the couple decided she’d have a better time elsewhere.
Commenters on Charlotte’s video disagreed with the whole arrangement.
“I’ve had a lot of backlash in the comments on my video but I know my gaming is a rarity – I’ve not touched GTA since I was pregnant.”
A decade in Los Santos
“I still recall the day GTA 5 came out and half the boys in college skipped class for one week,” Charlotte said.
“I didn’t get the hype then, but have since spent my late teens and entirety of twenties frequenting Los Santos to unwind.”
Tears, a birthday and a brand new PS5
The plan nearly collapsed at the end of August, when Charlotte realised GTA 6 wouldn’t run on the couple’s Xbox.
“Many tears were shed.”
A week later she turned 30. Her husband handed her a PS5.
“I could’ve married him again in that moment.”
After the sleepover, nap time
Once her daughter comes home, gaming moves to nap times and early bedtimes.
Charlotte considered a longer sleepover but decided against it.
“I would’ve asked for her to have a longer sleepover, but she is already spending a full weekend with my parents in early November, so it’s not fair on her,” she said.
“I will instead be cramming gaming sessions in during her nap times and ensuring she gets an early night until I have finished that storyline.”
Why it matters
Charlotte’s clip turned a babysitting booking into content, and the backlash only fed it.
Parenting confessions reliably start comment-section fights, and creators who attach them to a cultural moment as big as GTA 6 get the argument and the search traffic in one go.
After more than one delay, GTA 6 has become the most anticipated game launch in years, and creators across platforms are already building content around release day itself.
Whether a nap schedule can carry Charlotte to the end credits is a question she’ll answer some time after 19 November.
