Parents Competing Against Their Kids

I can remember quite vividly the first time that I beat my dad at checkers and pool. I can also recall the first time that I beat my mom at Scrabble. My folks never "let me win." At anything. Ever. And my family rubbed it in. We talked "smack" at the Wilson house. It's how we were taught. It made us tough and competitive.

Fast forward to now. I'm handling gaming with my daughter the same way. It has made her better at most of the games played between us. And, dare I say, she is already a world-class smack talker.

I can't seem to beat her when we play Sorry. (And she never is). The only time that I have a real advantage is when we are out for a meal and they have some sort of 80's vintage console video game. If it's Galaga, Pac Man, or Space Invaders, I'm your man. Anything a little newer and I tend to be in trouble.

I'm still hearing the replay of a hard-fought game of Uno that I lost at the very end because the latest version of the Uno game has a card that is not only wild but wild AND you get to swap hands with your opponent.

I've been hearing "Who's an Uno legend now?", and, "I think that it's funny that you think you're good at this game," and, "I thought that all old people were good at cards."

If you can't take the verbal punishment, you can't play games at our house. But not to worry. We supply crying towels.